Payment Plan (1-10)
by indehed
Summary: (McDanno, AU) Steve had argued that the principle of paying for someone's hand wasn't bad, just that some people corrupted the system and since he had no plans on being corrupt, then the current marriage laws would work fine for him… one day… when he paid to be with someone. Which, it seemed, was now. And Danny.
1. First Installment

**Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting**  
 **Pairing: Steve McGarrett/Danny Williams**  
 **Spoilers/Warnings: possessive!Steve. (slight understatement)**  
 **Author's note: What if we paid the modern equivalent of nine chickens and two oxen to someone's family in order to marry them?**  
 **I wanted to write a story where Danny was somewhat given no choice but to marry Steve, while trying not to make Steve a gigantic douche nozzle (but he kind of is, since it's his way or the highway a lot of the time anyway).**  
 **It's not a D/s world, but you could say there are hints to something like it.**

 **Originally published (on ao3): August 2013**

* * *

Danny had made a huge mistake and now he was paying the price. Well, technically, it looked like Steve would be the one doing the paying, but nevertheless. Danny had made a really stupid mistake.

Coffee cup in hand, head pounding, eyes still not wanting to focus properly, he stared at the document lying on the kitchen table in front of him. What the hell had possessed his incredibly drunk brain to do this?

Steve came up behind him, placing his hands on Danny's hips lightly, thumbs brushing over the waistband of his borrowed sweats.

"Did you forge my signature?" Danny asked, hopeful. Maybe he could argue this in court. But then, he may be hungover and he may have memory gaps, but there was something he could still remember of signing this thing while Steve could barely keep his hands off him. That was why his signature had an extra long looped line at the end of his last name, when Steve had thrust his hand in Danny's pants.

"Of course not. You brought it up first. All I did was call the Governor and have his secretary sort it out through legal."

"I can't believe they did this. This has nothing to do with Five-0. This is personal. Why the hell did they rush this thing through? And at whatever godforsaken time of night it must have been?!"

Steve laid his head on Danny's shoulder. "Because the guy in legal has a crush on Kono and I may have promised to put in a good word."

"Oh my God," Danny put his mug down and leaned over the table, his face cradled in his hands, he continued to stare at the agreement. "I don't even agree with this kind of thing. On principle. Not to mention vowing I'd never get tied down again." He stood abruptly, angry. "Why the hell did you do this? You knew I was drunk!"

"I was drunk too!" Steve argued back, then grabbed Danny's hand and pulled him flush with his own body. He nuzzled close to Danny's ear, his tongue flicking out to touch the lobe, then his teeth joined in as he tugged at it before trailing nibbled bites down Danny's neck. "I don't even care if you were joking when you mentioned it. It's what I've wanted since I met you and last night you gave me the opportunity. I grabbed it with both hands." And Steve did just that, as both his hands gripped into the flesh of Danny's ass, lifting him onto his toes as their groins rubbed against each other. Steve's body was beginning to respond, but there was no way they were going to act on anything, not when they needed to sort this thing out.

"Steve, please. Get it cancelled, annulled, whatever."

Steve pulled back enough to look at Danny like he'd grown a second head; the idea was ludicrous in his eyes. "You have read it, right? The amount of money that's going into Grace's college fund over the next ten years? The arrangements put in place for you? You won't get a deal like that anywhere else."

"I never wanted a deal in the first place," Danny said, imploringly. "And now that you mention it, you're right; this one is pretty ridiculously high. I paid only a fraction of all that for Rachel, and I got even less back when I passed her on to Stanley."

"I would have offered even more but it was you who told me this was enough!" He gestured at the legal paper. "People do stupid things when they're drunk, but Danny, we spent hours going over this. _**Hours.**_ Think about it logically. Grace is going to be well taken care of, so it's a win there. I get what I want, which is you, so I win right there. So what about you, huh? Are you really going to tell me you'll be miserable for the rest of your life by agreeing to this?"

This was all news to Danny. That Steve really wanted to marry him, to _buy_ him? Okay, so he'd caught Steve looking at him before, and he suspected there was something between them. But he'd been adamant about the 'no marriage' thing, because he neither wanted to pay for someone to break his heart again, nor did he want to be sold and feel some kind of obligation to be a good husband. He really hated marriage laws, he was firmly on the side of the pro-love movement who wanted to do away with the marriage payment laws completely and have consensual, non-profit unions. Just like was already in place in some European countries.

Sure, dowries had long gone by the wayside, but if someone wanted to be married to another person and they paid the family a hefty enough sum of money or assets then they could have that person. The idea never sat well with Danny, despite the fact that he'd married Rachel. But when he did that, he courted her properly, they didn't get married right away, they'd even lived together for a few months before he'd asked her father for her hand. She'd been a willing participant in the whole deal and had been a full part of the negotiations alongside her father. The laws still allowed for marriages of convenience and arranged marriages to take place and Danny hated that aspect of them. Money just didn't seem to have its place in creating families and yet, according to the US government, it did.

And Steve had spent his life so far in service to the US Navy; he was all about rules, regulations, sticking to the law. And he seemed to like this one. He seemed to like the idea that he could offer up money or whatever for what he wanted and he could get it. They'd talked about this at work a long time ago, when they'd had a case where the husband had murdered his wife so he could be free of the deal he'd signed up for. He'd wanted to leave her without having to pay anything back, without worrying about belonging to her anymore and it proved to Danny that these marriages were wrong. Steve had argued then that he didn't think the principle of paying for someone's hand was bad, just that some people corrupted the system and since he had no plans on being corrupt, then the current marriage laws would work fine for him… one day… when he paid to be with someone. Which, it seemed, was now. And Danny.

"I never said I'd be miserable, I just… I've never liked the idea of people being property."

"You're not a slave, Danny."

"No, because we're so much more civilized than the old slave owners," he rolled his eyes.

Steve took a calming breath then crowded Danny close to the table, which forced him to lean up against it so far that he was practically sitting on it. Steve's hands lay on the flat surface on either side of Danny's hips. "I'm not letting you out of the deal. We're going to have the ceremony this afternoon out back, and then tonight I get to have you naked in my bed. Don't tell me it's not something you want, too."

Danny could plead with Steve non-stop to have him break their deal, to have the Governor expedite the annulling of it, he could so easily do that, but Steve was stubborn enough that he wouldn't relent. And Goddammit if Danny wasn't getting hard at the thought of being in Steve's bed, of them cementing their relationship. It was all enhanced in his imagination with remembered kisses and fumbles from the night before while they sat on the couch. It had all been drunkenly sloppy and there had been mishaps and giggles and yet it had felt amazing. He remembered that. He remembered Steve's hands wrapping around his wrists and holding him down, his dirty mouth spilling words about what he wanted to do to him once it had been made official. Once he owned him.

"I always knew you were controlling," Danny started, unable to tear his eyes from Steve's darkened gaze. "I never really thought to apply it to your love life. I should have though, I should have known. If this was what you wanted all along, then you found a way to get it."

Steve shrugged. "I'm also very patient. Over two years I waited for this. But tell me honestly, Danny. Is it really going to be so bad being married to me? Living here with me?" His voice smoothed out as it lowered, his eyes dropping to Danny's mouth. "Having sex with me?"

"That depends on if we're doing it for the right reasons."

"I know I am," Steve said confidently. "And as far as I can tell, you're only protesting on principle. And the irrational fear that I'll be like Rachel and want to leave you. Which, by the way, is never going to happen."

"Those are both very good reasons not to do this, though."

"No, they're excuses. I think you want to be with me. We talked about this last night, Danno. The two year, slow-burn courting… And you outright admitted that you were practically taking advantage of the laws in order to provide for Grace. You've never once mentioned not wanting me."

Danny swallowed. Okay, so… maybe… maybe he'd looked at Steve. Maybe it had been the same kind of looks Steve had given him. Maybe he'd had the occasional wet dream, or jerked off in the shower to the thought of Steve but he'd thought that realistically they'd never do something like _this_. He thought they'd maybe, eventually, do the whole 'benefits' thing like Steve had once had with Catherine. He'd thought there was an attraction, but that it might be more of a fun distraction in their lives, not a full blown commitment. That Steve had agreed to this payment plan, that he'd actually offered more, that he was prepared to do that much for Danny? It was flattering to the point of embarrassment.

"Why not rip it up and do this without the bank details and the signing over of half your assets? Why not do this on trust, on love, on the idea that you do it simply because you want to and not because you're being held to ransom by some piece of paper written up by the Government?"

"Because this piece of paper," Steve held it up between them, and his low voice was adamant as he spoke. "It says you belong to me. That I paid for you fair and square. And that you agreed to it." The intensity of his reasoning made Danny swallow. "Marriages without deals like these break down easily, the divorce rate is higher for those without proper documents. My mom left my dad because their deal sucked and it was easy for her to do so before she ran off without a trace. Rachel left you for the same reason, and I'm grateful that she did because it means I get to have you now. But the point is, this piece of paper means you're not going to leave me, not without one hell of a fight."

"Now who's the one bringing fear into this discussion?" Danny asked. Steve was a control freak, sure. And that clearly had something to do with all of this. He'd not thought to add in his abandonment issues, too. Sometimes he wondered how Steve even functioned, certainly not without therapy, considering the things he'd been put through in his life; the losses he'd suffered as a teenager and as a SEAL.

Steve finally leaned back and wiped a hand through his hair. "Would you just…" He stopped short on whatever he was going to say, letting his hand drop to his side. "Would you just go shower and start getting ready? The Governor will be by around one o'clock to officiate."

Danny stood again, now able to do so as he was given room to breathe. "That's it? Discussion over? Captain Caveman has made his point and the rest of us have to live with it?"

"Yes," Steve growled, his shoulders and arms flexing with his contained strength as he did his best to lay down the law. "Chin will be by at eleven with our suits. Kono and Kamekona are bringing the things we need for the ceremony."

Danny just shook his head as Steve continued; partly in disbelief, partly in anger… partly in resignation to his drunken stupidity at the things he got himself into and the things Steve McGarrett convinced him to do. Because even if it had been his idea, Steve must have done something to manipulate it around to what it had become. To where Steve had the advantage.

"Marriage to you is going to be fan-fucking-tastic, I can just tell," Danny said, punctuating his words with as much sarcasm as he could manage.

Before he got to the kitchen door, Steve grabbed Danny by the arm and swung him round. The momentum pulled Danny in against Steve so fast that he couldn't protest. Then Steve's lips met Danny's so hard, with teeth knocking together, it was bound to leave bruises. Danny's scalp felt pulled tight as Steve's fingers tangled in his hair and forced his head to pull back to compensate for the height difference.

As the kiss ended, their faces were flush and they were breathing heavily. Neither man said anything, Danny just pulled away and backed out of the door to head upstairs, hoping the shower would ease the tension in his body.

His mind was in conflict. Attraction aside, there was no denying that his relationship with Steve could be fiery, no matter how much the two of them downplayed it at times. But yes, he loved Steve in his way, and he was his partner and he'd do his best to protect him. But could he _marry_ the man and be happy? Could he come to terms with Steve's dominant nature, his control issues, and live with them? These weren't just kinks of Steve's this was who he was. He didn't just get off on owning Danny like they were playing a game. Steve may be one of the kindest and most giving men he knew, he was also one of the most protective he'd ever met, but he was possessive. He was the kid in the playground who refused to share and threw a tantrum if someone tried to argue with him over what he could and couldn't do.

There was the potential for disaster here.

He sighed and sat on the master bed in Steve's room, worry and nerves making his hands shake.

He had made a stupid mistake. He was getting married to Steve McGarrett, and there was no way out of it.


	2. Second Installment

Okay, no. Just…. hold on. Why was he doing this? Why was he sitting in his nicest pair of pants and shirt (that Chin had brought over from his apartment), with ceremonial bindings on his wrists that Kono had put on for him before giving him a smirk, a pat on the back, a 'good luck, brah' and leaving to go take her seat outside?

He'd sobered up. That was part of it. He'd swallowed enough Tylenol and drunk enough water to force his body out of its hangover and he felt like he was fully among the living once more. His brain was back online and as he thought over everything from the night before and the morning so far, he really had to wonder just why the _**hell**_ he was just following along with everything.

He could back out of this. He didn't have to do it. What was he missing out on anyway? Their deal had only just been signed, nothing had actually taken place for the payments yet so if Steve didn't have to fork out for all the things he'd promised then no harm, no foul.

He hadn't even seen Steve for the last half hour. They were both getting ready and Steve was somewhere downstairs organizing more things (and Danny was still marveling at how much he'd organized to put this all together and so fast, considering the crazy had only begun the night before).

Maybe that was part of the problem. Everything in the house was going at a weird speed that Danny hadn't been able to match so far today. Now that he was alone, he was able to put some decent thought into all of this.

Fine, okay, drunk Danny had a point. Providing for Grace's college fund was essential and marriage, it seemed, was a good way to do that.

He hated that his cop's salary and the cost of moving to and then living in Hawaii had put a horrid dent into what he could provide for Grace's future. That little girl was his life and he wanted to buy her the moon if she asked for it. If she needed to be able to get through law school or med school or support some other career choice that was noble, fitting and safe, then he wanted her to be able to do that without worrying about the exorbitant costs involved.

But Danny was a proud man. He was fine with gifts or whatever, but if there was ever a hint of pity or charity then he struggled to accept it, because he was raised to believe in providing for himself. He didn't need Steve to swoop in and save the day. He didn't need Steve to insist that every apartment Danny lived in was a dump. He knew they weren't beach front properties with three bedrooms, but they were what he could afford and it was a roof over his head. That would have to do. He in no way needed to marry in order to get a shiny house. Or part of one, anyway. He could get a house himself once he'd been here longer, had a bit more money behind him, and could look into mortgages.

This was a nice house though, and Grace liked coming here.

Except, no. That didn't mean he had to live here. What was wrong with just visiting Uncle Steve every so often?

He looked down at his wrists, where the thin gold metal bands wove around each and crossed over in front like an infinity symbol, locking them tightly together in front of his body.

This was the whole point, right here. This was what the pro-love movement meant. How was getting married in this way anything except selling one person to another. If one person is in chains, how can it be equal?

This isn't a kink. _That_ he can deal with. The thought of Steve wrapping something around Danny's wrists to hold him immobile while they're together in bed is certainly a fantasy Danny had always been willing to indulge in, and he knew Steve would be up for that too, but bedroom antics are just that. It would be kept in the bedroom, it would be for fun. Playing with Steve's dominant side, playing with Danny's mild kink of Steve being dominant with him. Sure, it's a nice thought.

But when you put it into practice. When you say this is how they live their lives? That Danny be handed over to Steve (even if it is his own stupid fault) and that Steve would now own Danny? It doesn't matter how often the Government insists it's not slavery, ownership still lingers in the ideals of modern marriage in a way that's difficult to reconcile.

He and Rachel had managed. Like Steve had pointed out earlier, marriages like that were easy because if payment was so low, then divorce was never difficult to obtain. Many marriages used that model nowadays in order to assuage the guilt complex that some felt with the notion of buying and selling brides and husbands. Danny had been the same.

So why, _**WHY**_ , did he and Steve draw up their ridiculous document where Steve was pretty much offering _everything_ to have Danny. Did he think himself selfless? Was Steve doing this as one of his grand gestures? Or was this the ultimate in ownership: if he gave everything, did he _own_ Danny completely? How would Danny even start to 'pay him back'?

Danny's knees bounced as he sat, nervous energy flowing through him. He got up and paced the floor, getting annoyed at the wrist bindings when he tried to move one hand and the other went with.

This whole situation was a mess. It should never have come this far, certainly not without proper discussion. The kind that could take weeks, or months, to eventually decide just how they might go about getting married. That is, if they even wanted to do so after a courting period where maybe they were both fully aware that courting was actually taking place.

Steve could say that's what they'd been doing for the past two years. Yes, he could very well say that, and he had. But Danny had no clue that it was anything except friendship and a frisson of attraction underneath. Courtship was a whole other level of 'whoa, there'.

Steve McGarrett was a colossal pain in the ass. Doing his usual and running in where angels fear to tread and just assuming he'll remain bulletproof and everyone will fall in line with what he wants. The ninja idiot with his mental problems. Why can't he just act like a human being and do things properly? Make his intentions clear. Actually speak to Danny. Use words. They could work all this out if they'd just take their time.

The house today was the opposite of that. Steve was blazing ahead; he had everyone running around for him so he could pull this off. Some of their friends thought this was romantic, that Steve would do this for Danny, that they got together this way, that they went from zero to sixty the night before by somehow drunkenly admitting that they _could_ get married, then putting their foot on the gas and gunning it to two hundred in the next moment by _actually_ getting married the next day.

No. No, he wasn't getting married. Not without strenuous renegotiation. And he had to get these bindings off. He needed space; he needed to formulate his exact argument. He probably needed to see his soul-sucking lawyer.

He yanked the window open and leaned on the sill as he peered out at the roof tiles. Well, okay, he could do it. It wasn't too slanted and just a ways over was a tree he could use to ease his way down to the ground without jumping.

He pulled himself up and gingerly edged his way out. His bare feet struggled against the heat in the tiles and his bound hands made his balance more difficult. He slowly lowered his body, bending his knees as he sat and slid his way down and over. He took it slow and steady. He was off to the side where he really couldn't be seen from the backyard where people had gathered, nor from the room, unless someone came right to the window.

As he reached the tree, he gripped tightly to an out-hanging branch, but his hands made this difficult. He wrapped his legs around the trunk and slowly shimmied his way down. He then dangled himself down, only letting go when he was confident in his fall. He dropped like a stone to the hard packed grass below and winced as he landed on his tail bone, unable to brace against the impact.

His dress pants were covered in dirt and bits of bark and moss and he wiped the worst of it away. The white shirt he wore would likely never recover and dammit, he'd ripped part of the fabric. His stomach had a small line of blood where some sharp piece of bark had cut into him.

"Damn," he mumbled to himself as he got to his feet. Checking behind and around him constantly, he hurried to the end of the drive. Careful to not be seen, he dashed out onto the street, all the while aware that he was barefoot and clearly wearing marriage ceremony bindings. If anyone looked over at him now from the houses round about, it would be pretty clear that this was a man fleeing his own wedding.

But screw it. He was not getting married. Not today. And not to Steve McGarrett.


	3. Third Installment part 1

It wasn't exactly easy going. He kept checking behind himself all the way down the street until he turned the corner. He kept moving, keeping an eye out on his surroundings. He was more worried that strangers would see him and judge him for what he was doing. He shouldn't care, he really shouldn't, but he couldn't help it. There was a part of him that hated himself for running away like this.

But then he got a knot in his stomach, his chest tightened at the thought that maybe he'd been manipulated by Steve and then he felt the anger bubble up again. It was a vicious cycle and at this point he was really sick of _**thinking**_.

A few streets later, he realized he didn't know where he was going. Or even where he was. He looked around himself, turning from side to side, looking for street signs or something to indicate he might have driven by here before but it distracted him and it was too late to hide when a familiar silver car could be seen coming around a bend in the street.

He froze. It was moving slowly. Whoever was at the wheel (most likely the person who was _always_ at the wheel) was too busy looking about himself to concentrate on the road in front, but Danny knew the exact moment he'd been spotted, because the car practically leapt forward, the accelerator pressed down, roaring the car to life.

In another spectacularly stupid moment, Danny did the first thing he could think of: he bolted. It was stupid because he was running down a sidewalk in his bare feet, his balance off because of his hand position. The car was catching up with ease considering how fast it could really go. When Danny realized this, he stopped dead in his tracks and the car screeched to a halt further in front of him.

But as much as he was going on very little thought, he wasn't as dumb as it seemed, because he darted down a dirt path between two houses. Now they'd both be on foot, because there was no way the car could follow down what seemed to be a worn bike path. It was constricting on both sides: a straight shoot down between garages and fences, but the loose stones and dirt made it so Danny had to concentrate so as not to hurt himself or trip.

He hadn't looked behind, but he'd heard the yells of his name and knew Steve was gaining on him. He stopped, turned, and just at the last minute plastered himself to a wall, dodging out of the way of a flying tackle he'd only ever seen Steve use on perps.

Steve let out a growl as he landed on his stomach. His hands braced against the ground, he whipped his head in Danny's direction, eyes narrowing as he looked up at him.

"Wait, please…" Danny said, hands out placatingly, restlessly moving his weight from one leg to another. "Okay? Just please, don't do whatever it is you're thinking."

"What I'm thinking is that my husband ran out on me on our wedding day! What the hell, Danny?! The runaway bride act?!" Steve pushed up to his knees, his own once-clean suit pants and shirt now similarly stained with dirt.

"I am NOT Julia Roberts here, okay? And can I just say that movie was rife with inaccuracies. _RIFE_."

"What?" Steve asked, incredulous as to the turn in the conversation.

"She made it look so easy to get out of these things!" Danny held his hands up, showing his bindings. He'd tried, he had. He'd twisted his wrists every which way but he couldn't get to the clasp. All he'd done was chafe them, his skin reddening in contrast to the shining gold of the cuffs where they were flush against him.

Steve took a breath as he shuffled around on his knees to face Danny better. He seemed calmer as he spoke, but it was masking tension. "Danny. Please. Will you go get in the car. People are waiting."

"Oh yeah, sure, no problem, Steve, because I shimmied down a fucking tree for fun to kill some time, I didn't realize it had gotten so late."

"Oh my God, Danny. Can we argue about all the little details later? The Governor is in our back yard right now. Chin and Kamekona are stalling for us but I don't know how long they can hold out."

"Details? You think I'm upset over details?"

Steve reached out for Danny's hands but he jerked them back before he could touch him, taking a small step away. "Danny, I am trying here, I really am. I thought I'd put together something amazing, okay? People came out to support us, I got everything expedited, I've been on the phone with the bank and the lawyers… I told you I'd take care of everything and I have. Last night, on the couch, everything was fine. Happy. Ecstatic, even. What could possibly change overnight? I thought you were on board with this."

Danny scrubbed his hands over his face. He tilted his head from side to side a couple of times as he waged an internal war, remembering just how fine he'd been with things when he'd also thought that a certain Mister Jack Daniels deserved a medal and possibly Australia for creating his bourbon.

"We got carried away. There were fantasy scenarios and a severe desire to screw the system discussed and…" Danny's shoulders deflated. "And you told me you loved me. You actually said all the right things, and that floored me." He lowered himself closer to Steve, cupping his face as best he could and smiled faintly. "You made me feel good about myself and the shit that's happened in my life. You actually made me think we could fix things."

Steve's hands lightly curled around Danny's wrists, over the binds. "And all that disappeared when you woke up?"

"No, but reality sunk in. There's no quick fixes in life, no matter how much you think your Navy SEAL training has prepared you for everything and I thought we were… I dunno what I thought we were doing."

"We were doing exactly what we wanted," Steve's adamant voice was punctuated with a tightening of his hands on Danny.

"In our own little fantasy world, maybe. But what you spun turned out to be a lot more real than I expected. When you phoned the Governor last night, I thought you were speaking to a dial tone. Hell, I didn't even think we were going to file the papers at all. Do you know how many times we put everything down on paper and then changed things before Rachel and I got married? We wanted to please her father, but at the same time, we wanted our marriage to be about us and not a contract. It was a fine line and it took us a good month to lock it down before finally, _finally_ , we took the papers to city hall. And in one night, _one night_ , you get us married."

"We still need to have the ceremony."

Danny dropped his hands, shaking off Steve's grip. "Like that bit even matters, it's just pageantry and an excuse to rack up a credit card bill. The legal documents are already through! They've been signed, witnessed, notarized, whatever."

"I still don't see the problem." Steve frowned at the withering look he got in response. Danny felt he'd explained himself just fine. One night was not acceptable for compromise. "Hear me out, Danny. You say we spun a fantasy that you were enjoying. So I made it real. Isn't that a good thing? Isn't that a _great_ thing? It's not like we left anything out, we spent ages considering everything, making sure we put in all we needed to and you said it yourself, it's a great deal. So it didn't take us weeks to figure it out, so what? Not every marriage has to take an army of lawyers to hash out the details and take our money. In fact, isn't it better that we did it like we did? It was fast, painless, it shows we're on the same page. It shows how perfect we are together."

"Alcohol, Steve. The bourbon made us a lot more agreeable."

"No, no no no. If you, if _we_ didn't want it as it is, we wouldn't have signed. Even drunk, you still have a level enough head for this kind of thing, I know you do." To Danny's mind, Steve was grasping at straws as he placed his hands on Danny's shoulders, trying to convince him. It felt like he would say anything to try and get Danny back on board, but he'd clearly convinced himself of his own arguments, too. It made it difficult to argue with him, when he convinced himself of what he wanted to hear. There was seldom an opportunity to talk Steve out of things. It never worked.

"Steve-" Danny began.

"No," he was cut off. "Every argument you present, I'm just going to counter it. I know you. Maybe better than you know yourself at times and right now, you're scared of the change in your life, you're not scared of me, or of marriage to me. That's why I know we're doing the right thing."

"Maybe you're right. But it means I'm not ready." Danny's eyes took on a pleading edge again and he lifted his hands between them. "Please take these off."

"No," Steve shook his head.

"Steve-"

"NO!" Steve growled, raising his voice as he pushed to his feet, pacing away then turning back, the veins in his neck straining with anger. He took two large steps back to Danny and forced him to his feet, pulling on his elbows and holding steady. "Stop this, stop making excuses. Stop telling me you don't want it when I know you do."

Steve shook Danny, making him lurch forward with the force. "Get your hands off me!"

"Get in the damn car!"

"Are you going to drag me there, huh? Pull me by my hair?"

"IF I HAVE TO!"

Danny twisted his body, loosening Steve's hold on his elbow enough so he could shove a shoulder against him, trying to make him back off, but it just made Steve yank his other arm back and around so that he could grip him under his arm pits and begin to move him back along the track towards the street.

Danny dug his heels in. "No. Steve. Ste- wha… Steven!"

He could do very little with his hands, his back was to Steve, his shoulders pressed to his chest as Steve held tight. He struggled against him as Steve got the upper hand and marched him as best he could back the way they'd come. Eventually he kicked out, his foot impacting with Steve's knee making him buckle and Danny finally was able to twist further and he brought his fists up as one to get a good right hook in against Steve's jaw.

Everything slowed as he watched Steve recover from the blow, his hand going to his jaw to check the damage but he didn't reach out for Danny again.

As they stood there, breathing heavily, their eyes met in disbelief.


	4. Third Installment part 2

"I'm sorry, I didn't…"

"It was my fault. I shouldn't have…"

"I don't… I mean you…" Danny gestured back to the car with his bound hands. "Steve, please. Just… you can't just expect me to do what you want."

"You want it, too."

"Part of me. Maybe. Okay. But I need to process things and you're not giving me that chance."

"What's to process? You. Me. Married. That's it, that's all there is to it."

"You're doing a fabulous job of skirting over the contract." Which, as Danny kept trying to point out, was the elephant in the room that was causing them problems. There was a difference in beliefs here and both of them were struggling to overcome it. Danny felt uncomfortable with the marriage laws. He always had. His parents had always had a very good, very fair deal. At least, as far as they were concerned. He'd watched his two older sisters make a point of holding their husbands to higher ideals than money and power, and when one of those guys turned out to be a complete douche that reneged on his part of the bargain, she'd had no problem in getting divorced without feeling like a failure and without landing herself in a pile of debt and worry. And he'd had the same with Rachel. Sure, it had broken his heart when they'd divorced so that Stanley could buy out their contract, but it made things easier that they'd put together solid provisions. It took the stress away and left them with only the emotional baggage to deal with.

Steve was the opposite. He'd seen low deals work against him, leaving him without a mother during impressionable teenage years and as such, had begun to develop this desire to lock down the person he chose to marry so that it wouldn't happen to him. He didn't want to repeat his father's mistake. And with his father sending him away to the mainland after he'd fallen apart at the loss of his wife, Steve had never seen him go through a recovery. All he'd ever seen was that the marriage had broken his father and, at least to him, his father remained as broken up as the family unit from then until his murder. Because of that, his abandonment issues were as overdeveloped as his control freak tendencies. Years spent in military service had honed them, as well as his problem-solving skills and his knack for going in guns blazing. Gut instinct and intelligence collided to make him so sure in his movements that nothing could dissuade him when he thought he was right. And at the moment, he was convinced of his rightness. He didn't realize he was railroading Danny, except in flashes that Danny could see in his eyes, where there was a conflict inside Steve, asking himself why his perfect scenario wasn't going to plan.

"Can't you just look at the contract differently?"

"Because changing my mind on something is just that simple," Danny argued back, his hands still twisting in their bindings as he talked with his hands as much as his mouth, making the chafing worse and he could already feel a little wetness as they rubbed. He hadn't looked down, but he was convinced the skin had now broken.

"No, just…" Steve sighed and shook his head. "Danny, I have never had to work this hard at getting you to see where I'm coming from."

"This is different and you know it. This isn't using a shark cage to scare a perp, or telling a guy he's on the edge of a cliff when really he's three feet off the ground. Because those things were over in a matter of minutes. Done, dusted and in the end, no one really got hurt beyond the lack of proper procedure. But this is a big deal, Steve. This is our future, our lives. This is a map to how we'll be for maybe the next fifty or more years. And you're telling me that you've got it all under control, that something we developed while drunk one night is the best we're ever going to come up with? Do you even hear how insane that is?"

Steve tilted his head, his eyes rolling up as he actually took moment to think. "Fine. I get it. When you put it like that, I see where you're coming from."

"Finally!" Danny let out a breath and what felt like an insane amount of tension from his body, turning himself a way for a moment.

"But," and the tension returned. "We've known each other for over two years; we've shared so much in that time. I know I have your best interests at heart, Grace's… I don't know how many times I've told you this in the last 24 hours, but seriously… the deal we struck? I got off lightly, because I'd have added a load more clauses that gave you even more."

"Yeah," Danny nodded vigorously, fully intending to turn Steve's words against him. They may seem romantic and chivalrous, but there was a sinister side to them that Steve did a piss poor job of hiding. "Yeah, I know… and if we get divorced it puts me so far up shit creek that not having a paddle would be the very least of my problems."

"We're not getting divorced."

"Because you wrote so much into our contract that it's made it impossible!" Danny yelled, and he could swear it was loud enough to cause an echo in the back alley they were still standing in; hoping the houses around weren't getting a good show right now.

Steve gave a slow nod. There was no denying certain motivations he held. "It wouldn't stop you entirely but yes it's made it difficult. But that goes for me too, I'd be liable for a hell of a lot should it be me at fault."

"Not as much as me," Danny warned. "I'm the secondary on the contract, you're the primary. You devised it, that gives you the control." He held up his hands again, offering them as proof. "I'm the one in the binds, not you."

"So what you're saying is, you trust me to have your back in a gun fight, where our lives are on the line. You trust me to take control of a situation, say, stranded in a dinghy at sea where you might be panicking, for example. But you don't trust me in this?"

"It's different," Danny said, trying desperately not to give in to Steve's point because, yeah, okay, he could see validity in it.

"Our lives were at stake, that's not more important than who gets what or who has to give what in a far-flung, highly unlikely divorce?"

"I'm not saying that. I'm saying that in certain circumstances we play to strength. I told you why I don't like the water, and you're a freaking Navy SEAL. There's a reason that you get to take charge when we're at sea."

"And when you're panicking about something," Steve said.

"Exactly." Danny agreed, recognizing Steve's 'upper hand' face for what it was too late.

"Just like right now."

"I-" Danny spluttered. He was not panicking right now.

"You're not panicking? So running away like you just did, that wasn't panicking?"

"Onl- Only a little bit," Danny admitted. He was self-aware enough to know that climbing out onto the roof and then down a tree while cuffed and barefoot was a pretty huge amount of panicking and not facing up to the issues, but it had been all he could think to do in the moment and he couldn't bring himself to wholly regret it. Because it led to now, it led to what might turn out to be a helpful conversation. If he hadn't, he knew that right now he'd be in the backyard, surrounded by their friends and still in some form of shell shock.

Steve reached out and took Danny's head in both of his hands, pulling in to press his lips to Danny's forehead. "Then trust me now, please. Let me take care of it and you'll see, we'll get through everything fine."

Danny allowed himself a moment to sink into Steve's hold. Last night they told each other how they felt, that 'love' was involved and it had the potential to be pretty damn epic. They'd kissed for the first time, giving into the need to do so. They'd tussled on the couch, groping and fondling but there had been very little nudity involved apart from the loss of their shirts. They'd yet to have sex, a drunken Steve saying that if they got married the next day then they could be completely old-fashioned and wait until then.

Despite the lack of sex, of any actual relationship beyond a flirty friendship and a partnership laced with sexual desire, the touches they had shared in the past were always calming, soothing. They gave each of them a moment of peace inside and right now Danny craved that kind of relaxation more than anything else. His stress levels had been amped up all morning. It didn't matter that Steve was the source of it all, he allowed himself this moment in his arms because he needed it.

His hands curled into the fabric of Steve's shirt where they were crammed between their bodies. Steve's arms wrapped around his shoulders and smoothed over his upper back as he turned his head into Steve's neck and breathed deeply.

As with everything involving Steve, it was met with both warmth and trepidation. He shouldn't allow himself these moments and yet he was drawn to them and felt that if he didn't allow them, then he'd regret it and the unfulfilled desire would be worse than the aftermath.

"I'm not going to force you to do anything, Danny, but you need to think of the big picture right now. The papers have gone through, they can't be stopped. In the eyes of the law we're already married. We've got a bunch of people back at the house waiting for us to perform the ceremony and this part is important to Hawaiians. Think about what might happen if we don't follow through. The attitude from the locals, from HPD. It could make things difficult for us at work. And you know what kids are like, how they can tease without understanding. We don't want Grace to go through anything all because you had doubts."

Danny stayed tucked in Steve's arms. He knew what Steve was doing, and his mind was letting him do it. How he was saying these things, the way he was doing it, and how pointed he was being. It all appealed to Danny's own protective nature for the people he cared about. He didn't want anything he did to fall on Grace, nor did he want any of his actions to backfire on Five-0 and their friends. He always made a point of owning his mistakes.

But goddamn the manipulative bastard for using it against him.

He pulled back enough to look up at Steve. "All that because we don't do the ceremony?"

"That and wanting to break the contract. Especially after having it expedited. People talk, you know. Everyone would know before we got back to work on Monday. We'd be ridiculed and shunned. Both of us. All because we quibbled over the bullet points."

Danny's heart beat wildly in his chest with worry, frustration, muted anger and something else he couldn't quite place when he saw the look in Steve's eyes.

"You know exactly what you're doing, don't you?" His eyes narrowed as he was answered with a crooked, smug smile. "You're still in control; you're still acting like you're getting everything you want."

"I am. You're seeing it my way, like I knew you would."

"We're not done, Steven," Danny warned, though there was less bite to his words than before.

"No, we're not. But right now, we have a wedding to get to."


	5. Fourth Installment part 1

They were quite a sight as they made their way back to the car. Danny's feet ached from the rocky path and from where he'd dug in against Steve during their fight, his side still had a twinge from where he'd cut it on the tree and his wrists hadn't been happy for quite a while now.

For his part, Steve had a slight limp from where his knee took a hit and he kept touching his jaw, checking for swelling. But the man was still happy with himself, because, with a hand lightly touching Danny's lower back, he was leading him over to the car. Willingly.

He opened the car door for Danny with a flourish, closing it behind him as Danny folded himself in, aware of his balance without being able to fully use his hands. Once he was in the driver's seat, Steve leaned over and helped Danny buckle up, like the fastening was helping to secure Danny in more ways than one.

"Nothing really has to change, Danny. You'll see," he smiled as he started the engine.

"Oh except my living arrangements since I'm supposed to move in with you… and you get my car…"

"Okay, first," Steve held a finger up, "You've lived with me before, when you were looking for a place, and that was fine, even with you on the couch. And two," he held up a second finger. "I drive this car all the time anyway, it's practically mine as it is. Everyone thinks so."

"Just because everyone thinks so, doesn't make it right."

"It is now."

"Yeah," Danny turned in his seat. "Because you are damaged in the head. You have enough emotional baggage to ground a 747, and you're using it against me."

"I'm not using it _**against**_ you. And I'm not damaged, Danny, why do you have to say that? I'm…. driven." He seemed to gesture to the road in front of him as they made their way back the two streets over to the house.

"Driving me insane, more like," Danny mumbled as he slunk down into his seat, still fumbling against his binds. He'd pretty much given up on Steve taking them off him now, not until the ceremonial aspect was done.

"We'll need to get cleaned up. You ripped your shirt. Is your side okay?"

"I barely feel it," Danny shrugged off.

"I'm sure we've got something in the first aid kit, and Chin did bring a few of your clothes anyway so we could decide what to wear, so that's something." He looked down at where Danny was twisting his wrists around. "Would you stop that, please? You're just hurting yourself."

"They're uncomfortable. I don't like them. It would be easier if you took them off…" He figured he may as well hedge his bets as he waggled them in Steve's eye line.

"Well, that's not going to happen until the ceremony is over. And they're uncomfortable _because_ you keep fidgeting."

They pulled into the driveway to find Kono and Max anxiously waiting for them. Danny could see their sighs of relief from here. "Oh my God. They're happy for us, aren't they. All of them."

"It's not so hard to believe. They saw it coming a mile off, according to the messages I got this morning. They didn't even gripe about the fact that we wanted to do it so quickly."

"You wanted," Danny corrected.

" _ **We**_ wanted," Steve corrected back, alluding to the night before when Danny had been happy to do anything Steve wanted. He had a vague recollection of even agreeing to a night swim, but thankfully that hadn't happened as they'd become so caught up in all the planning for this and then collapsed in Steve's big bed together. Where he thinks he promised Steve a morning blow job. Which also didn't happen due to the epic hangover and shell shock that came when he woke up.

Danny squirmed in his seat, managing to get his arms around to press the release on his seatbelt, and fumbled to get it away from him, but he made no move to get out of the car yet, instead took calming breaths. He'd got himself into this, and he would just have to deal with it. Steve was right, even if he was being an ass. He needed to follow through for so many reasons and could only hope that after the people had gone and they were alone, that he could try and get Steve to back down and renegotiate.

He couldn't deny that he was monumentally attracted to Steve, mental state at times notwithstanding. Thoughts of Steve had often kept him awake at night and those were now clearly being returned in spades if the night before was anything to go by. In many ways he had no problem with getting married to Steve. It was just the way it was being done that really didn't sit right with him.

True, Steve's controlling side had its advantages. Right now wasn't one of those times.

"Just out of curiosity," Danny began, scratching his cheek as he looked over at Steve. "How 'traditional' is traditional?"

"You're wearing those aren't you?" Steve pointed at Danny's cuffs. "And we've got the cloth and the standard vows. It's traditional enough."

Danny nodded and blew out a breath while Steve came round and opened his door. He climbed out, holding onto Steve's hand and Steve kept hold of him as they made their way to where Kono was tapping her foot restlessly and Max kept looking around himself as if worried people would see them like this.

"Danny, what the hell?!" Kono began, hands open as her eyes showed a hint of anger and worry at his actions. But he didn't answer her.

"You know," Max began. "Cold feet or 'jitters' are a common occurrence, especially in secondaries. In fact-"

"Max, we don't have time, could you…?" Steve cut him off and gestured to Kono to take Danny in and upstairs to clean up.

"Sure thing, boss," Kono took Danny by the elbow and marched him up to the bedroom. Danny glanced behind him and saw Steve wipe a tired hand over his face before turning to where Chin was coming from the kitchen. Their eyes met briefly before Chin led Steve away separately, but he couldn't decipher what he saw play across the older Detective's face.

Kono and Max were a blur of action while Danny did his best to clean up in the bathroom. He hadn't been allowed to close the door: it was as if they were scared he'd lock himself in and refuse to come out for the ceremony. It was a thought that had entered his agitated head, but he was tamping down on it as much as possible, refusing to give in again to his flight instincts.

He dabbed at his injured side with an alcohol wipe. It was shallow and did little more than sting as he wiped the dried blood away and checked it wasn't bleeding again. He sat on the toilet to rub at his feet, taking the dirt and grime away from them as best he could, but really not caring too much. Then he looked his hands over and realized there was no way he could twist them around enough to help the chafed and split skin there. As it was, his dirty shirt was bunched around his elbows. He couldn't get it off unless he tore it or the cuffs were removed. The same for getting a new one on.

He came out of the bathroom to find Kono had laid out new clothes for him on the bed. He lifted his hands. "Can you unclasp these for me?"

She frowned at him and bit her lip. "I'm not supposed to, you're not marrying me."

"I can't get dressed with them on." Logic won out and she took his hands gently in her own to find the clasp on the back that widened them enough for him to slip his hands free. He shook them out. "Oh thank God," he moaned with delight, flexing his wrists and heading back into the bathroom to run them under a cold tap.

She joined him a moment later, leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed. "You left your phone. It went off a few times. Your mom. I didn't answer it," she held her hands up defensively when Danny shot her a look. "You've got voicemail, though. It pinged on your screen. She might have left a few."

Danny hung his head. Every time people mentioned something, parts of his memory of the night before returned full force. Now he could add a drunken phone call to his parents in that. He'd left a message for them saying he was getting married today and not to worry about him and Grace anymore. Oh God, his mother was going to kill him. She'd have to do it later, though. There was no way he was ready to speak to her yet. First, he had to work out what the hell to say to her… how to explain…

Kono held his phone out to him. "You want to call her back?"

He shook his head while rummaging in the medicine cabinet for ointment. "I'll do it later."

"But it's your mother."

"Exactly," Danny said as he rubbed the antiseptic on his wrists.

"You think she's upset she can't be here?" Kono showed her innocence of the situation and Danny hated to burst her bubble. This was his problem; he didn't want to lay it at her feet.

"Something like that," he faked a smile and went back into the bedroom and sat while he pulled his fresh shirt on. She gave him some time, joining Max on the landing and letting him head back downstairs while she kept guard over him in case he tried to leave again. Whether she'd been ordered to or not, he didn't know. It was highly possible she saw this the same way Steve did, she looked up to him so much, and she and Chin always upheld Hawaiian traditions.

Everyone on this island was insane. All except his perfect Gracie, that was. They would have to be, for them to be here to watch him give himself to Steve like it was simply a formality after their two year partnership. What had they all been thinking these past years? Did they all just assume this day would come? The day that Danny signed as a secondary to Steve. The equal partnership that Steve hid inside as the benign Dictator. Though not so benign at times, including now.

He got lost in thought as he redressed and wasn't paying a huge amount of attention when Kono came back in again and sat beside him. "You ready? Steve's at the bottom of the stairs waiting for you."

Danny rubbed his hands on his knees. "Yeah," he turned to her. "Let's get this thing over with."

She took in his sullen expression and softened with a quizzical look. "You don't sound too excited, Danny. It's your wedding day. I know you had one before but you can't be that jaded. It's you and Steve. This is a good thing."

"You seem to have a vested interest in my love life."

"I just want you happy, brah," she knocked her shoulder into his and he felt himself give his first genuine smile of the day to her. "Steve's always made you happy."

"He always makes me happy?"

She shrugged. "Even when you fight it's still there, I mean, come on… You guys never even really admit to fighting. To you it's just a conversation."

He pulled her in and kissed her hair. "Come on then, rookie. Time to face the music."


	6. Fourth Installment part 2

Danny ran his hands over his shirt, smoothing it down. He missed his tie considering how dressed up he was supposed to be, especially since they weren't wearing jackets. But on the other hand, he'd rather keep this event as low-key as possible. He wasn't that far off from his usual, everyday style, it was just that he was wearing his more expensive pants and shirt.

Kono hung back and let him take the lead as he made his way across the landing, and began his descent down the stairs.

Steve turned from where he was standing by the couch and lifted his head when he heard the creek on the top stair. He smiled wide, eyes crinkling at the corners and he seemed to relax in the space of a second, seeing Danny in front of him.

"Wow," he said, looking Danny over appreciatively. "This is exactly what I imagined."

"Imagined?" Danny asked, a hand waving in front of him as he gestured around the mostly empty room. "You prepared everything in the space of about 10 hours. Not sure you had much time for imagining."

"Doesn't mean I haven't been wanting it to happen for a long time, and thinking about it." Steve reached out to Danny's shoulder, his hand warm through the thin shirt. "Something's missing though."

Steve gestured to Kono and held his other hand out. Danny twisted his hips enough to watch as she placed the gold binds back in Steve's hand and he groaned. He'd half hoped everyone would forget about them now they were off but no such luck.

"Seriously, Steve, do I have to?"

"It's expected, Danny."

"It's primeval, Steven."

Steve pointed to himself with the binds still loosely in his grasp. "I don't make the rules, Danno. It's just how it is. The secondary wears them for the ceremony, and today, that's you."

"Today and for the rest of our contract, yay me," Danny lifted his shoulders and smiled sarcastically.

"Just give me your hands." When Danny didn't move Steve glared at him. "Give me your hands."

He cleared his throat and lifted them, watching as Steve slid them over and tightened them on his wrists. He winced as the metal once more rubbed against the sensitive skin there. Steve's thumb trailed over the welts carefully as he pinned the clasp into place on top, where now only he would be able to release Danny later on.

Dropping his wrists in front of himself again, letting his arms look weightless, he turned to find that everyone had left them alone in the house, with the back door ajar. Danny knew that everyone was outside waiting on them. He turned back to Steve.

"How many people did you invite?"

" _ **We**_ invited just a few. I don't know, maybe 15 or 20 tops since some people brought dates with them." Steve looked at Danny, curiously, seeing his nerves for what they were. He placed an arm between Danny's and crossed his other over to seal the hold of their arms in place like some parody of the binds on Danny's wrist.

The service was pretty much a blur for Danny. He and Steve had walked out together into a pile of people he recognized from the Islands that today he had an irrational hatred of. They all turned, looking happy for them and Danny spent his time walking between them wondering if any of them had a clue as to how he really felt.

The Governor read out words that any ten year old could recognize from a string of romantic movies and both Steve and Danny repeated what they should.

He looked around at the others who had gathered for them. Recognizable faces from work like Charlie, Duke, Max and the rest of Five-0. Kamekona and his cousin were here since Steve had called on them last night to do a special deal for the event catering. And yeah, Doris was here, sitting in the front, close to Steve and she looked, well, Danny couldn't tell if she looked happy or not. She never gave much away. She hadn't been back in Steve's life for long and Danny wasn't happy about it. She'd screwed up his life once, giving him the issues that were now badly affecting Danny. He could only guess what would happen to Steve with whatever she did to him next.

Steve looked good in his suit, that much Danny could appreciate. He also wore just the dress pants and shirt, but where Danny had the binds to distinguish him apart, Steve had the light ivory cloth wrapped over his shoulders. Of course, being Hawaii, it had been combined with a lei and hung from him, swaying gently with a breeze or when he shifted his weight.

When the Governor asked him to, Steve let go of Danny's hands and lifted the cloth from around his neck and wrapped it around Danny's wrists, once again repeating vows with every turn of the material until it was snug on top of the binds. He kept one hand above and one below the material and looked at Danny.

The Governor cleared his throat and Danny was brought back to himself. He looked down at their hands then back up. "Sorry, nerves," he explained and there was a murmured laugh from their small crowd. "Uhm, I do."

In the next moment, there was applause and cheers and Steve's lips on Danny's. His head tilted back against Steve's superior height and a certain amount of getting carried away when he felt Steve's tongue lick along his lips asking to let their embrace deepen. If only for a moment it did, until Steve pulled back, smiling, turning to thank the people around them as he kept an arm around a still somewhat dazed Danny.

It had actually happened. After the craziest night and morning of his entire life, Danny was standing here, in front of people he knew, getting married as a secondary to Steve McGarrett after having signed up to what was both the best and worst deal he could come up with. His head hurt from the stress and thinking and arguing. His wrists and feet hurt from their confrontation and now he somehow had to muster up the energy to be nice to these people.

And he still had to phone his mother back.

In the next moment the one precious thing in his life came bounding up to him and threw her arms around him. Her smile was enough to wash away his current woes and he let her enjoyment of the moment affect him as much as possible. His arms wrapped over her head to rest on her shoulders; the cloth having come away again, no longer needed now the ceremony was over, all that remained were the golden cuffs.

"Danno, are you moving in with Uncle Steve?" she asked, wide eyed as she looked up at him.

"Is that what you want?"

"He has a beach. And now you're married you're supposed to sleep in the same bed."

"Then I guess I'm moving in."

Steve lowered himself closer to Grace's level. "What do you think, Gracie? I know this whole thing was fast. Are you sure you're happy about me and Danno?"

She nodded as she turned to lean back against Danny, his arms still over her shoulders. "Mom says it took you long enough."

"Nothing much has to change, unless you want it to," Steve reassured her, and now Danny hated him even more because he was being endearing. He was being good with Grace, just like always, and she loved him so much. He hated that he was angry at Steve for everything today, especially when he was turning on the charm. "I just want you to know that I'm gonna take good care of Danno. And you."

"I know," she lifted Danny's hands away and moved forward enough to wrap herself around Steve, and Danny could tell from the flashes around them that someone, maybe more than just one person, had decided it would make a perfect snapshot.

"Why don't you go get some food, Monkey. Best get in before all the good stuff is gone. You remember Kamekona and Flipper, right? They'll help you out." He shooed her away, ever aware of her movement, but he knew that Rachel, who was here also, was keeping a good eye on her from where she was sitting talking with Duke and his new partner.

Having a moment to themselves, Danny held his hands up again. "Ceremony's over. Can you…?"

"Not yet. We gotta do the whole cake thing and the grand unlocking. Kono will kill me if we don't do it right and they're her family's cuffs so I'm not going to argue with her."

"You're infuriating," Danny muttered and then decided he didn't want to look at Steve at the moment and instead made his way into the small crowd of people. He'd rather plaster a smile on his face and put up with the ribbing and the pats on the back, than listen to Steve say anything. At least for the next ten minutes, that would be bliss.

Oh God, he remembered as he caught sight of a grinning Kono chatting with Chin.

He still had to phone his mother.


	7. Fifth Installment part 1

"Ma, _**Ma**_ , would you please…? How can I answer you if you don't let me? I can't talk to you when you're like this."

"I get a phone call in the middle of the night, I let it go to voicemail, and when I hear it the next day it's to discover you're getting married?"

"I was drunk, Ma," Danny squeezed his eyes shut and attempted to rub his hand to his brow before realizing if he did that then he'd drop the phone. Goddamn cuffs.

"I should have picked up. Maybe then this wouldn't be happening. I mean, you couldn't wait until your father and I hopped a flight over?"

"We didn't really think, Ma. I'm sorry."

"Damn right, you're sorry." She sighed down the phone at him. "Well, at least I know he's handsome. And he gets on well with Grace. We didn't even realize you were seeing him, let alone in negotiations. I hope you got a good lawyer, not like that soul-sucking quack you used in your custody hearings before Rachel moved you all out there."

There was silence on the line. Danny didn't know what to say and yet it was clear that his mother was waiting for him to talk.

"Danny?" She paused again. "You didn't use a lawyer, did you."

"No…?" Danny couldn't help but timidly respond in the face of his mother, who was very much like him and a force to be reckoned with, even through a phone. He groaned. "Look it's not like we _planned_ … I mean, there was whiskey involved and it seemed like a good idea at the time and…"

He gave up trying to explain. Because excuses wouldn't cut it, not with his mother.

Now it was her turn to be silent and Danny could practically hear the cogs working in her brain.

"Daniel Williams. What. Did. _You._ _ **Do**_?"

"Now, Ma, before you get upset, I know it was stupid, okay?"

"What did he offer you?" She asked, her voice hardened, brooking no argument.

Danny cleared his throat and moved the phone to his other ear. "Ten thousand dollars a year for ten years into a trust fund for Grace and half the value of his house."

"And what _is_ the value of his house?"

"Well, it's Hawaii, which is expensive to live in and he's got the whole beach front thing going on. But on the other hand, I could swear it's not been redecorated since the nineties and there's only been basic repair work done to fix the bullet holes… not exactly something people want to read about in listings so…"

"The value, Danny!"

"Maybe four hundred? For my half." He pretty much mumbled the last bit, somehow hoping his mother would miss it.

"Oh my God, Danny." She didn't miss it. He just knew she was hanging her head, a hand over her mouth in dismay. "You can't match that, honey, does he know that?"

"Yeah, he knows," Danny sighed the sigh of the put-upon. "I think he was well aware of that last night, too." He glanced outside the house to where everyone was celebrating currently without him.

"What did you put in the pot?" She sounded calmer, maybe it was sympathy for him coming through.

"I'm the secondary. In the traditional sense. I put myself in. Well… me and my car. And I'm pretty sure the car was included as a joke that drunk me thought was hilarious."

"You are such an idiot, Danny. How do you get yourself into these things?"

"I dunno, Ma. I feel like I got played. I don't like feeling this way, but I signed it, you know? I thought it was a good idea at the time but I didn't really believe this would happen. We were doing this whole 'what if' thing and the next thing I know Steve's got it all expedited through Legal using the Governor as clout and then he's got all our friends over for the traditional ceremony."

"Did you talk to him, does he know all this?"

"Yeah, we had it out earlier on and I can't seem to get through to him. I don't know if he's being obstinate on purpose or his default asshole setting is on show today because he's acting like the cat that got the canary. You don't know him like I do, Ma. He's got marriage hang ups and he thinks this is the only way to get what he wants."

"Schmuck," she muttered, low.

"Yeah, that's him."

"No, I meant you."

He pulled the phone away from his ear for a second to frown at it, like his mother could see his reaction. "You're not helping, Ma!"

"What do you want me to say, Danny, huh? You've always been supportive of secondary rights, of the farce that is the marriage laws in this country. Hell, in some of the States it's just ludicrous. Your father and I were always open with you and your brother and sisters and you've all done damn well in negotiations before and now you go and do this? I get that you were drunk and playing around, but you know better than to take marriage lightly."

"I do and I know, okay? It's just… this is Steve and he has this _thing_. This way about him that just draws you in. He's always convinced he's right and the majority of the time he is. He can be incredibly kind and giving and turn all that around and be hard and unmoving. Determined, you know? He knows what buttons to push. He knows how to deal with me… but I know how to deal with him, too." Danny glanced back towards the lanai, keeping his voice down just in case.

"Then _**deal with him**_ ," she said, adamantly. "Divorce is clearly not an option because of what you've accepted here but get the lawyers in, renegotiate."

"He shoots me down every time I approach him about the terms."

"Don't let him."

"I know. I know," he said as he watched people moving around outside. "I feel a little out gunned is all. Hawaiians are… different. They seem to like this kind of thing. It's not the same as back east."

"That doesn't matter. You've got to both be happy with it and, honey, it sounds like he's still talking you into it. Hell, you're talking _yourself_ into it."

"I'll talk to him. I will. I just… gotta get through the rest of the day." He was tired out, the day was killing him and he just didn't have the energy anymore.

There was the sound of someone moving through the kitchen, heading his way. He lifted up from where he'd landed, perched on the edge of the couch, and looked through the doorway.

"Hey," Steve smiled. "Everyone's looking for you. Time for the cake."

"Is that him?" his mother asked, hearing the muted sounds of another voice nearby.

"Yeah, it's him. I gotta go," Danny answered, giving Steve the best smile he could muster.

"Put him on, Danny. Let me give him a piece of my mind."

"Not going to do that, Ma." He kept the smile on his face, trying to make himself appear casual and not like his mother was threatening bodily harm on his now-husband.

"Put him on!"

"Bye, Ma!" He hung up on her. He really hoped she wasn't going to plague him with phone calls for the rest of the day, or, heaven forbid, try to call Steve. But his dad wouldn't let her once he found out. He was always the calmer of the two and more likely to try and take time to figure things out than go in bullheaded. He was a firefighter, he knew he had to be prepared and have all the information before going into his type of battles and he brought it to his everyday life.

"You good?"

"Yeah," Danny exhaled. He moved closer, expecting to simply walk back out with Steve but instead the taller man pulled him into his arms and brought his lips to Danny's in a light touch.

"I'm sorry they couldn't be here for this."

"Trust me, you really aren't," Danny shook his head, thinking about just how much his mother would slap Steve, and how his sisters would spend the time with their arms crossed shooting him daggers. At least, once they found out the details. Before then they'd just drool over how hot Steve was.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Steve asked, a little bewildered by Danny's statement.

"It's… never mind, save it for later. You mentioned cake."

Steve leaned down again, brushing his lips over Danny's, kissing him soundly, pressing for entry into Danny's mouth, seeking out his tongue. His hands drifted lower, cupping Danny's ass to pull him closer. After what seemed like many long minutes, he pulled back to breathe and pressed his forehead to Danny's. "I'll never get tired of doing that."

"Yeah?" Danny asked, feeling that pressure in his gut, that shudder through his body as Steve's low words sounded so content and adoring.

"I held back for so long and I swear it just got worse when all I ever wanted was to hold you close and show you how much I cared. How much I love you."

"I know, babe. I felt the same."

Steve kissed Danny again, moaning into the touch like a starving man feeding on him. And it was hell for Danny because he enjoyed it. Steve, like this, made him feel wonderful, made him feel safe in their own bubble. Made him want to be with him all the time, he could be so perfect. And yet, below the surface things were swimming around and he couldn't ignore them, he just couldn't.

This time Danny pulled back, patting Steve's chest with his trapped hands and said, "Cake."

"Yeah, yeah, we better." Steve turned in one direction, then back in the other before settling a hand at the back of Danny's neck as they walked back outside.


	8. Fifth Installment part 2

Steve was behind Danny, pressed close with his arms around him. Both of them held the knife and with awkward movements they cut into the cake to a round of flashes, whistles and cheers from their small crowd.

It was by no means a cake of any magnitude. They didn't have the time to get one custom made and instead it was store bought. Although by 'store bought' it was clear that Max hadn't gone to WalMart to get it, more like an actual cake store. But it was generic, and wasn't tiered. It was just a cake.

The knife dropped to the table as Steve moved his weight from foot to foot, gently swaying them both as he rested his smiling face against Danny's temple and got caught up in the moment. In other circumstances, Danny would be right there with him, reveling in the good feeling coming from the assembled guests but after the talk he'd had with his mother, he couldn't bring himself to do much more than a cursory smile and let Steve have his moment.

He could feel Steve's arms tighten their hold as they clasped themselves around him, warm and scarily comforting. Like Steve was right there waiting to take the worry off Danny's shoulders. And going by their contract, that was exactly his plan. It was just… Danny was perfectly well aware that nothing came without a price. And Steve's happiness had a price, and that was Danny shutting up and going along with what he wanted.

He had so many arguments in his head and he needed them to be ordered so that they could be effective. And he needed to get Steve alone for it. He refused to bring their baggage into the open like this.

It still sucked though. This was his wedding day and he wasn't getting the enjoyment out of it that Steve was.

"Danny, you're tensing up. Just relax," Steve stage whispered into his ear. "I got you."

Yeah, he did have him. In more ways than one.

That was the problem. And not just for Steve because Danny was well aware of his own dichotomy. He was happy that Steve had him. He was comfortable and comforting and it felt good to lean on someone rather than always having to be stoic and strong and put everyone else in his life first. If he needed a shoulder he was always glad it was Steve's. And yet, he valued his independence, the fact that he didn't owe anyone anything for where he was… well, apart from his parents for standing by him, helping him through school, college and the Academy. And he fully intended to be there for Grace in the same way. The last thing he expected to do in his life was be so indebted to someone that he put _**himself**_ on the line to pay for it. Even if it was the person he trusted the most in the entire world. Because that power Steve would hold over him - there was no way to know that it couldn't, in the wrong circumstances, become corrupt. Steve had been through a lot in his life, frankly he wasn't always the most stable. Steve was a good man at heart, a great man… but shark cages, roofs, cliff tops, grenades… they spoke for themselves.

He felt pressure on himself to take care of Steve sometimes. Like he was Steve's grounding force. He had always been happy to do it and he would happily continue to do so. He was worried what would happen in Steve's head if he couldn't explain himself properly later. He was worried for Steve, not himself.

It was all so stupid. Why the hell had he signed that damn paper?

Steve's chin was resting on Danny's shoulder and Danny raised his joined hands to lightly touch his fingers to Steve's face. It was on the tip of his tongue to reassure Steve that he loved him but he couldn't say the words. Not right now.

"We've gotta try the cake," Steve insisted, his hands now clasping at Danny's hips as he moved himself more to Danny's side.

"I'm fine right now."

"Come on," Steve said, letting go and now using a fork to dig in haphazardly.

"I'll try it later when I've got full use of my limbs again," Danny tried, taking half a step back.

"It's buttercream," Steve tempted.

"That's your favorite; you should eat the whole thing. Seriously, I'd pay good money to see you bloated after eating something that size," Danny smiled, sinking into the safety of their banter.

"I'd need to run Diamond Head about twenty thousand times to work it off. I'll have a little bit," Steve assured instead and shoved the fork into his mouth with a happy grin. "Man, it's good," he spoke around his mouthful. He dug back in and took another big piece onto his fork and held it out for Danny.

"I'm a big boy. I can feed myself, McGarrett."

"The jewelry makes it harder right now. Just let me help."

Danny was opening his mouth to laugh out another 'no' as Steve tried to shimmy forward and make airplane motions with the fork, when instead he took it between his fingers and pushed them into Danny's mouth, giving him little choice.

Danny bent forward, his hands coming to his mouth to help as he spluttered around the mouthful. There were pictures being taken of them playing around and he could hear Kono's distinctive giggle as well as Grace's childlike innocent enjoyment of seeing her father with buttercream and icing all over his face.

"Such a-" he cut himself off from calling Steve a dick, knowing Grace was nearby.

Steve just laughed and pulled him in with one hand on the cuffs. He brought the other hand up, fingers wiping off Danny's face. "You got a little… here…" He gave up on using his fingers and instead just licked across Danny's cheek and then into his mouth, their kiss full of passion and tongue and a messy amount of smiling around the sweet taste.

What broke them apart this time was a hiss from Danny as Steve's hand tightened on the binds, his fingers closing over the red and raw skin, making a sharp pain run through Danny's arm.

Steve looked down between them. "As sexy as it is to see you in these, it's time to get them off."

"Thank you," Danny sighed in relief.

Steve turned to the others and loudly asked that anyone wanting to participate in the removal toss should get ready.

Steve's tongue played across his lips in concentration as he found the clasp and carefully pulled it back enough to give Danny his freedom. Steve was gentle and careful of the skin as he pulled the metal away. After he'd done so, he held the binds under one arm so that his hands were free to take Danny's and lift them carefully to his lips, placing tender kisses on the damaged skin, all the while looking deeply into Danny's eyes, showing his open emotion. It made Danny's knees weak and could have practically hypnotized him; it was a look he would love to see more of. Steve was usually so much more guarded but here, with Danny, he was melting.

He let their hands drop and moved in to kiss Danny's forehead before saying anything again. "Okay, time to see who can catch!" He handed the cuffs to Danny.

Danny rolled his eyes and marked who was where in their little gathering. Plenty of the older folk had hung back: this was a moment for the younger guests to enjoy.

He turned his back and carefully lobbed the cuffs behind him and into the waiting group. He turned again to find a bit of a scramble. Grace and Max at the front couldn't quite reach as they weren't tall enough, Kono fumbled them backwards and as they fell to thigh height, one pair of hands was able to grasp hold of them. Charlie Fong. He looked rather sheepish to have caught them, considering tradition meant that whoever did would be the next person to wear them.

Frankly, he was just glad it hadn't been Grace, even if she did look a little sad to have 'lost', but she didn't fully understand the implications of it yet and knowing his little girl and her fierce and strong personality, he doubted she'd ever want a marriage where either her or her betrothed wore the damnable things. No matter who claimed primary or secondary.

Steve was behind him again, hands smoothing down Danny's arms. "You should eat. I've asked Kamekona to plate some stuff up for you and there's champagne for us to have too."

"Not so sure I ever want to drink again after last night," Danny's shoulders slumped as he was ushered over to a waiting table that was pretty much 'reserved' for the two of them with a few empty seats for others to come and go.

"People always say that. And it's just champagne."

" _Now_ it's just champagne but this is a celebration, right? Once the kids are packed off home I shudder to think what reserves of alcohol you'll bring out to have a party with. And when that happens, God knows what else you'll have me agree to doing. I mean what's next? Skinny dipping in the ocean, parachute jumping, tying me to the bed frame, huh?"

Steve had the temerity to look like he was seriously considering all three options.

"Shut up," Danny said before Steve could answer. "I don't want to hear it."

Danny propped his elbows on the table and let his head fall into his hands, his eyes closed. He ignored the food and took deep breaths until he felt Steve's strong hands stroking over his back, rubbing in calming circles.

"Danny, you need to stop being so hung up on this contract stuff."

"Do I?" He asked, not even looking up and just hoping there was enough venom in his voice to convey his feelings.

Steve's arms wrapped around him; difficult in their seated positions, but a casual observer would probably think it cute that they were sitting this way. Steve leaned his head in close to Danny, kissing behind his ear before speaking low and authoritative. "It's all in place and we don't need to change anything. You'll feel better if you just accept that."

Danny shuddered. This was the Steve that worried him. The possessive one who wanted to bend Danny to his will. He'd never seen this Steve come out as often as he had today. Before it had always been greeted with a roll of the eyes and the ability to just walk away until Steve moved on. That wasn't the case here. Not now that Steve had Danny in his grasp and he had the upper hand.


	9. Sixth Installment part 1

Steve kissed down into Danny's neck. "You need to eat, Danny, seriously. You'll need your energy for tonight."

He could feel Steve's seductive smirk against his shoulder, deft fingers having pulled his shirt back for better access.

He lowered his hands back to the table, exposing his eyes to the world once more and he turned his head to try and get a better look at his partner. "You did not just fucking…" He scrunched his fists up tight and bit his lip, doing his best to rein his anger in.

Steve covered one of his hands, pulling his fingers apart and twining them with his own. "It's simple, Danno. We both signed, we're both stuck with each other now. And that's a good thing. It amazes me that you don't see it that way. The level of commitment we're showing to each other? It's getting rarer, you don't see it so much these days."

"For good reason."

"No, because people are viewing marriage as something frivolous. Don't like it? Then get a divorce and move on! Don't think about the other people in your life affected by your decision, just take the easy road and get out of there. I never wanted that. I waited, Danny. I waited for perfect."

"I'm not perfect. No one is."

Steve cupped Danny's chin. "I disagree; I think we're a perfect match for each other. I knew it the minute I made you my partner."

"And what would you do if I said I wanted a divorce?" Danny asked carefully, wary of Steve's behavior today.

"I'd laugh probably. We made it impossible. I get to keep you." Steve smiled wide and stood, coming around to lean on Danny's shoulders from behind, giving him a backwards hug before kissing the top of his head. "Eat, baby, I'm going to see the Governor out."

Danny's phone beeped and he reached into his pocket to pull it out. He stared at the screen for a moment and debated opening up the full message but he'd reached a point where he didn't think anything could get much worse for him so he pressed to let it fill the screen.

He was tempted to give a wry laugh at what he read. His sisters had spoken with his mother, it seemed. Now the whole family knew. Great, just great. It was good to see they were behind him on this, but there was very little they could do, not from New Jersey, and not within the parameters of the law, so his eldest sister couldn't _**actually**_ do what she had suggested. Not without serious jail time.

He deflated as he rested the phone on the table in front of him and reluctantly dug into his dinner. He had been riding high on adrenaline and righteous anger for most of the day and was too keyed up to eat, but his stomach was protesting violently and he needed to get something into himself before he collapsed. He was already shaky. He was pretty sure it was from the hunger.

Not long before he'd finished a shadow appeared over him, and then the form of Chin came around the table to sit opposite him.

"This the first time you've been able to eat today?" he asked.

"Yeah, pretty much, except coffee."

"You doing okay?" It could be a throwaway comment, a question people always ask, not expecting a long, drawn out answer detailing their woes, but something in Chin's eyes made it seem like that was exactly what he expected.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Danny asked, trying to gauge where Chin was going with it.

"That's some contract you signed. When I got here this morning, I swear, I've never seen McGarrett happier, but you… I can see how that smile drops when you think no one is looking. Kono thinks it's because you miss your family, but I don't know…"

Danny leaned back in his chair, appraising Chin, and cautiously tried to put some of his thoughts into the right words. "From what I see, you Hawaiians take the marriage structure seriously, like it's some kind of nod to your ancestors to keep the traditions alive. What you all forget is that I'm not Hawaiian, I just live here. Steve, for all his years being here, isn't exactly 'native' either, not in that sense, so you tell me where it says I should feel guilty about _**my**_ traditions and values."

"You're worried about what people will think," Chin nodded in understanding. "That stuff last year at the Heiau really got to you."

"No, no it really didn't. I didn't think so anyway. The ceremony I can deal with, it's not like it takes up a lot of time, I can be flexible about that. When in Rome…"

"So…?" Chin asked, confused.

"It's not about today, Chin," Danny looked at him, hoping he might catch on without having to explain it further.

"It's about the rest of your life," Chin concluded. "This is about the contract, not the wedding."

"Be honest with me, buddy. You think it's right for us?" He didn't want to put words in Chin's mouth, he didn't want to sway him by outright asking if he thought it was wrong.

Chin weighed up his thoughts. "You thought so when you signed it. And I can tell you that you're both garnering a lot of respect for putting so much in, not everyone could throw themselves so confidently into such an agreement, not in this day and age." Chin leaned back, mirroring Danny's pose, trying to keep open and relaxed as they spoke. "I think that so long as you're both happy and get what you want, then it's all good, no matter how it's contracted."

Danny tapped his fork against his mouth. If Chin could see something wasn't right, then why couldn't Steve? They were partners; they were supposed to know each other better than anyone else. Steve's blinders were on. He was focused on the prize and wasn't worried about collateral damage along the way.

Chin was beginning to look worriedly at him, like any second he was going to comfort him and hug him and he didn't want that because if Chin did that, then he'd probably give in and tell him everything about how he was feeling and he needed to save that for Steve.

He did the only thing he could think of to avoid anything emotional, and went straight to the humor. "I gave him my car."

Chin laughed, loud enough to attract attention to them again. "Brah, that was stupid."

"You're telling me."


	10. Sixth Installment part 2

"Nuff respect, Jersey," Kamekona clapped Danny on the back. "You got balls."

"I do?"

"Taking on a challenge like McGarrett? Sure do."

"He's nothing if not challenging," Danny said wistfully as he turned his head to look where Steve was in conversation with Kono and Catherine. They were all smiling, laughing. Perfectly happy. It was good to see, but it made Danny feel like an outsider at what was essentially his own party.

"You need a good deal on the honeymoon, you see me first, brah."

"Yeah, sure thing, Shamu." Danny nodded and gave Kamekona the best approximation of a man-hug that he could manage around the native Hawaiian's bulk. "Not sure there's going to be one of those though."

"No honeymoon? That's not right, brutha. You gotta make time for it. Decompress, get used to married life. Enjoy a little alone time."

"If Steve wants some 'alone time' then he's welcome to it," Danny said. Kamekona gave him a funny look, but instead seemed to interpret that his own way and chuckled as he turned around to help Max with his tofu option.

Danny grabbed his cake and made his way back over to where Chin was sitting.

"Hungrier than I thought," he pointed to the large slab on his plate and dug in. He wanted to ask Chin something, but wasn't sure if it was his place, or if the feelings were too raw, but there was understanding in Chin's eyes and he'd never shied away from this kind of thing before.

"Chin, you had a good deal with Malia, right?"

"Yeah, I got off lightly, I think."

"How come?"

"We spent a lot of time going over things. I mean, she's a doctor, I'm a cop. She earned way more than me."

"You both put in the same?"

"Pretty much. And if we got divorced we'd bargained on a pretty even split of assets. The crux of the deal came in other issues like…" Chin dropped his head for a moment and Danny could see that whatever he was going to mention was harder for him. "My job was a sticking point. Not the stuff from before. I'd been exonerated, reinstated; it wasn't a worry. But injury or death? It's a dangerous job and with the way McGarrett runs Five-0, more dangerous than most."

"Tell me about it," Danny agreed. "So she put in provisions?"

"Yeah. Truth be told, we barely talked about what might happen if she went first."

Danny reached out a hand and clapped it on Chin's shoulder. "I'm sorry, man."

"Look, I know you're having some kind of issue with everything while Steve's too busy celebrating to notice, but take a good, hard think about how to approach everything. It doesn't matter how much of a whirlwind this really was in the end, you guys have pretty much been together for two years and everyone noticed. _**Everyone**_. You both wear your heart on your sleeve where the other is concerned and I don't want you to lose what you have over this."

"I don't want to ruin anything," Danny placated, seeing that somehow his and Steve's happiness meant something to Chin, especially after what the older man had been through in the last year. "As much as it pains me to admit it, I actually like the stupid son of a bitch. I just need him to come back from whatever covert mission he's playing in his head and join me in the real world long enough to understand my concerns. Not just sweep them under a rug because he knows what he's doing."

He stopped himself from saying more. He sounded depressed to his own ears and he wasn't far from being overtly upset and that was not something he wanted right now. He pressed everything back inside, wiped a hand over his jaw and took another bite of cake.

"He does love you," Chin's eyes were soft, like they were saying that he knew what love looked like and not to take that part lightly either. Danny could do little more than nod. "I'm going to get a beer, you want one?"

"God, yes," Danny responded before remembering his bargain to not drink today. Chin was already on his feet and heading to the side table they'd pulled outside to use as a 'bar', which pretty much just had a bunch of beer sitting in a big old bowl with ice.

"So I had two pieces," Steve's slightly guilty voice came from behind as Danny scooped the last of his cake into his mouth.

"Sorry?" he asked automatically, not sure what Steve was meaning.

"The cake," he replied, sitting down beside Danny and pulling his seat in closer. "I had two pieces. Gonna have to do a lot of exercise later to feel better about that." He leaned in and stole a kiss from Danny's sugary lips. "Hmm, you taste good," he murmured before stealing another.

"I didn't see Catherine arrive," Danny said, pulling back and trying to make conversation.

"She dropped in about half an hour ago after finishing at work. By the way, Chin gave me this to give to you." He held up two bottles of beer and passed one over to Danny. "I thought you weren't drinking?"

"Yeah, I wasn't, and I shouldn't, but what the hell, one beer won't hurt." He took a big swig, gulping down a good quarter of the bottle in one go.

"Everything's winding down a bit. Governor left along with the guys from his office, and the HPD lot have all gone, too. Pretty much just leaves Five-0 and some of our extended family."

"I can see that," Danny said looking around them.

"Which means you don't need to be so focused on keeping up appearances. Let your hair down a little. Eat, drink, be merry…"

"You trying to get me drunk again?" Because if Steve said yes, he was getting a knee to the balls any minute.

"No, I didn't mean that." Well, that was something. "Just that we were planning on putting the seats out in a bit of a circle, a little music and relaxing to enjoy the late afternoon sun."

"That actually sounds kinda nice," Danny admitted. He'd actually quite like to enjoy some time with friends, maybe he could just forget about things for a little while. He took another swig and decided that yeah, they could do that.

"Rachel was wanting to head off, get Grace home for dinner. You should go say bye. I think my mom was going to go, too. Not sure we really want her around considering where the conversation will probably go," Steve screwed up his face and it was kind of adorable and it actually made Danny smile. Steve kissed him again and then let him go find his erstwhile daughter and ex-wife.


	11. Seventh Installment part 1

He'd kissed Grace goodbye and listened to her try to act much older than her age and tell him not to do anything she wouldn't do while the party continued in her absence and before he knew it, he was closing the door and listening for the sound of a car engine leaving the driveway.

"They gone?" Steve asked, rubbing his hands together as he came out of the bathroom to find Danny leaning against the door.

"Yeah," Danny straightened up.

"I can't find my mom but the guys are changing everything out back. I've heard whispers of dancing." Steve sidled up to Danny and wrapped around him, swaying them both.

"I don't dance."

"According to you, you do, you just choose not to sometimes."

"This might be one of those times."

Steve's arms dropped. "Danny," he said exasperatedly. "Come on, man, we got married. They're celebrating with us. Can't you cheer up a little? I know you're parents aren't here and I know Rachel wanted to get Grace home but you've still got me, right?"

"Are you really going to stand there and act like that's the reason I've not been all jovial today?"

"Jovial?"

"Shut up! Just… shut up, Steven," Danny paced over to the couch and threw himself down on it, grabbing a cushion to his chest like a security blanket.

"Danny, you're doing it again, you're flipping out like a… like a…"

"Hothead? Well, you know what, Steve, sometimes there's good reason to be a hothead. Sometimes you just have to be louder to make yourself heard!"

Steve towered over him. "I'm listening, Danny! I'm right here!"

"Are you? Because I've been trying to get through to you all day and you just shoot me down, every single time. Even when I thought I was making myself pretty damn clear by running out!"

Steve paced away and turned back, a hand to his head. "This is about our deal again? Danny, it's done. Why are you worrying about it? Nothing's going to change now, it's too late and frankly, I don't want to, I'm fine with it as is."

"It's lopsided, Steve. That doesn't worry you?"

"I know it's lopsided! That's how you wanted it, I told you I'd give you more but you said no!"

"What?" Danny asked, incredulous, flinging the cushion aside and pulling himself forward to perch on the end of the couch cushion. "What the hell are you on about? You're the one in control of the contract, not me, you hold the power. It's lopsided in _**your**_ direction!"

"Danny, what you put in is worth so much more than what I did," Steve sunk down to sit opposite Danny on the coffee table.

"I put myself in," Danny moaned.

"That's my point," Steve reached forward for Danny's face. "You're more important to me than anything else and you signed to let me keep you. Do you know how that makes me feel? That you did that? That you put that much trust in me? It's amazing and I promise you, _**I promise you**_ , I'm not going to take that for granted."

"Steve," Danny's eyes dropped, catching sight of Steve's hands out of the corner of his eyes and he clutched onto them with his own. "It's not about that. Well, a little, I mean we've got the rest of our lives and you can't promise you won't fuck up but my point is this… it's making me uncomfortable."

Steve pulled back a little. "Because you don't trust me?"

"I trust you, Steve, I always have. It's just… I've always believed in making marriage contracts even. Ours isn't."

"I told you.."

"I know," Danny interrupted, not wanting to hear Steve's platitudes again, he wanted results and he was beginning to sense that Steve maybe was listening to him more now and he didn't want to waste this moment, even if he was tired and not feeling like he was firing on all cylinders. "It's… think of it this way," he shuffled forward again in his seat. "I went through the ceremony in the traditional way even though it's not how we do things in Jersey. Frankly, we don't have a ceremony tradition that I care about but because you and all these other people do, I figured it was a concession I could make."

"You complained the whole time."

"Not the point. My point is, think of the tradition thing instead."

"But you don't _have_ a tradition."

"Exactly!" Danny waved a hand in the air. "My tradition is not having a tradition! My tradition is my family history of loose and even contracts. Do you see what I'm asking for here? I just want you to make some concessions for _**me**_ now."

Steve rubbed his hands on his legs then stood enough to move over to the couch beside Danny and sat close enough for their legs to brush together, the warmth of his body sliding against Danny's. He threw an arm around Danny's shoulder and pulled him in. "We can take a look at things tomorrow."

"Thank you," Danny laid his head on Steve's shoulder and relaxed. He was getting somewhere. He didn't have anything in place but there was promise, there was possibility and that was the important thing to him right now. Maybe Steve wouldn't be quite so pig-headed come morning.

"Just to be clear though, no divorce."

"No divorce," Danny repeated and Steve pulled him even closer, if that were possible, as he dragged Danny back with him as he collapsed against into the couch. "Like you said," Danny continued. "Not exactly very easy for us to do."

"You bet your ass," Steve's voice was almost a growl as his hand moved from Danny's shoulder to his head, pulling him in closer to drop a kiss into his hair. He then moved down to his temple and then his ear. In the next moment he was on his knees and pulling on Danny's hips to turn him and he closed in on Danny, forcing him back to lie on the couch, his head propped on the arm.

Steve hovered over him, one hand propping him up, muscles defined with the strain of his own weight, while the other skirted over Danny's body appreciatively. "Us getting married was the right thing, Danno."

Danny looked up into Steve's sincere eyes. They were piercing, they were doing everything they could to let Danny see his feelings. He could do little else other than nod in response, not trusting himself to say anything useful.

"After everything with Grace's custody again, almost moving off island… Danny, I can't lose you."

"You're not losing me. I'm right here."

"Last night we admitted everything, it all came out, we were open and honest and I know we haven't done much more than fumble yet but it wasn't just spur of the moment. We've been leading up to this since we met and I've been ready for this."

"Steve, there are people outside."

"I know," Steve nodded, his eyes more intent on Danny's lips and neck than anything else. "I know, I just…" he nuzzled his nose to Danny's, his tongue darted out to lick along Danny's bottom lip and after those testing touches he claimed Danny's mouth in a searing kiss. He pulled Danny's legs into place on the couch without breaking their connection, and moved to settle himself more comfortably on the smaller man. His free hand hooked under Danny's knee and pulled his leg around Steve's hip so he could settle between Danny's thighs and nudge closer.

His lips drifted after so many passion fueled and messy kisses and his teeth grazed against Danny's jaw and into his neck where they latched on, sucking and biting low on his collarbone. Danny hissed at the dart of pain and clutched his hand into Steve's hair, throwing his head back further, the arm of the couch digging into his scalp.

"Ohmygod, seriously?!" The high pitched voice came from the door to the kitchen, surprise evident as Danny and Steve's heads both whipped round to see Kono's hand over her mouth. "Save it for later, guys, everyone's waiting outside for you."

She made her way to the bathroom, leaving them in silence pierced only by heavy breathing. Steve rolled his hips into Danny's but then dropped his head to lean on Danny's shoulder in frustration.

"Now I really want to send them all home," he said, muffled by the material of Danny's shirt.

"No," Danny tried to straighten himself, despite being hindered by Steve's weight. "No, we shouldn't… couch, no. Just… people, let's go." He shoved at Steve to get him up again.

Truth be told, he was glad of the interruption. He hadn't meant to get carried away and he couldn't let Steve seduce him with a smile. Sure, he was a guy, and an offer of sex with someone hot wasn't going to be turned down in a hurry, but despite the progress they'd made in the last half an hour, it wasn't a done deal yet. He was softening, they both were, but he needed to stay focused and realistic. He shouldn't let himself be distracted by a pretty face, nor the fulfillment of fantasies he'd had for what must be going on over a year now.


	12. Seventh Installment part 2

It was a pretty small group that had stayed behind. Five-0, Kamekona, Max and Catherine were the only ones left. Steve and Danny were next to each other, of course. And as soon as Danny had laid his hand down over the arm of his chair, Steve's had been on top of it and hadn't relinquished his hold since.

Kono had decided to make fun of them for catching them on the couch, Catherine declared she'd seen the whole marriage coming all along, and Kamekona alluded to their sex life at every opportunity. Only Chin held back on them. Steve likely put it down to his loss of Malia catching up to him after a day of celebrating someone else's happiness but Danny knew better. Sure he joined in, he laughed where it felt appropriate and he answered back, threw in a few stories of his own but he never really brought up the future. His conversation with Danny earlier had played enough on his mind to keep his comments at bay but he gave Danny an easy smile as his eyes dropped to where Steve was holding his hand.

One by one they took off: tired and not wanting to drink anymore because they had to drive. Catherine had been the first to go, with a kiss on Steve's cheek and a pat to Danny's shoulder. Max headed off shortly after, citing an early morning for him. Chin and Kono left together, persuading Kamekona to go as well since the party was now well and truly over.

They all made their own way out, leaving Steve and Danny sitting on the deck watching the sun lower in the sky. It was still daytime, and there was light for a while yet. Steve's fingers traced small patterns on the back of Danny's hand, then he sat up a little and turned Danny's wrist over.

"How're you're scratches?"

"They're not scratches they're full blown injuries. You can tell those cuffs are antiques, you know."

"I kinda liked seeing them on you. Not in a secondary sense just… it was sexy seeing you tied up for me." He smirked up at Danny as he shifted his body towards him.

"No comment," Danny said as he raised what was near the end of his third beer to his lips.

"We could do it again. Not tonight but sometime. Hand cuffs. We've got plenty."

"Still no comment," Danny laughed into his bottle this time.

"Maybe after a few beers. You know you're more amenable when you've been drinking. Also a little bit when you're tied up. I kinda want to see both."

"Amenable?" Danny scowled as he sat up in his chair. "What the hell does that mean?"

"Nothing, it means nothing."

"You're saying that you need to get me drunk to agree with you, that it makes me pliant? Wait, last night…"

"No," Steve shot forward in his seat, a hand up to ward off Danny's thoughts. He clearly could tell where Danny was going with this. "No, not like that. Don't twist my words."

"I'm not twisting anything, you said it."

"I'm just having fun with you, we're trying to relax. It might have come out wrong. A little. I wasn't thinking."

"Seriously, Steve. Last night. Did you plan that? Getting me drunk and hoping that in my more relaxed state I'd agree with you more willingly?"

There was a pause, but Danny couldn't tell if it was indignant or fueled by guilt before he spluttered out, "No!"

"Why don't I believe you?"

"Maybe because you've been in a mood all day. Look, Danny, I already promised you we'd look over the contract tomorrow. You'll be completely sober then. You want to get off my back now?"

"Looking over doesn't mean we'll come to some great compromise. Not straight away. This could involve lawyers, Steve. You do realize that, right?"

Steve slumped in his chair. "Yeah, I get it."

He wanted to reassure Steve that if they could do it without help then that would be great. He wanted to tell him that he thought that once they had it hammered out properly their marriage could be a damn good one. He wanted to tell Steve he did have strong feelings for him, that he loved him. But he didn't say anything. He just looked at Steve's dejected face and thought that saying anything could damage the fragile peace he was feeling in himself, and the hope that everything could be fine, that it would be okay. If he said anything reassuring, Steve might take that the wrong way, his way. Might see it as Danny backing down.

"Look, I could use something a little stronger than light beer."

"There's old vodka somewhere, and for some reason I think there's some port stashed in the back of the cupboard. There may also be some whiskey, proper stuff."

Danny made his way into the kitchen and rummaged, eventually finding the remains of a good scotch, a half bottle of vodka and… well, he left the port, it looked funky.

He didn't even bother with glasses, just grabbed the bottles and made his way back outside, threw himself in his seat and opened the vodka, taking a slug from the bottle before handing it over to Steve.

They drank in silence for a little while until Steve dared to break it. "So today was… something."

"That I cannot dispute." He let Steve keep hold of the vodka and turned his attention to the last fingers of whiskey in the bottle.

"Danny," Steve reached a hand out that knocked against Danny's elbow. "Danno…"

"What?" Danny asked, when Steve just seemed to trail off.

His question was met with an honest to god giggle from the Navy SEAL. "I like saying your name."

Danny smiled into his bottle and rubbed an eyebrow in something close to coyness.

"But seriously," Steve said, trying to lean closer. "What I'm really looking forward to, is hearing you yell my name when we're in bed together."

"Is that so?"

Steve pulled his bottom lip into his mouth and looked Danny over, not hiding his approval at what he saw. "God, it's going to be good."

"You think you can make me scream?"

"I think I'm going to enjoy the challenge. Oh hey," Steve touched the bottom of the bottle to Danny's bicep. "About that whole skinny dipping thing you brought up earlier."

"Not going to happen," Danny's face tightened in a half-smile.

"And the parachuting? You would be strapped onto me, it'll be fun."

"Are you kidding? That's my idea of hell. Pure hell. You whooping in my ear while I cling on for dear life and see it all flash before my eyes. Risk leaving Grace fatherless, with just Step-Stan? No thank you. Solid ground below my feet, that's what I like."

"You're smiling though. It can't be all bad if you're smiling. I think we should add stuff like that into the contract."

"You think because I'm smiling it means I really want it? You think it means I'm okay with everything? Babe, it could easily just be a mask, hiding the fact that what I really want is to punch you in the nuts. How about that?"

Steve scrutinized Danny and it made him uncomfortable enough that he downed the last of the bottle in his hands then dropped it to the deck at his feet, doing his best to ignore Steve's gaze.

"Come 'ere," Steve gestured, palm open.

"Why am I the one to move? I'm comfortable."

"Come here," Steve insisted, leaning forward enough to reach for Danny's hand, taking a tight hold and trying to pull him over.

"You're such a control freak, animal," Danny grouched as he got to his feet, his head swimming with the motion. While he'd been sitting he hadn't noticed the alcohol flowing through his system but now, yeah, it was hitting him. That scotch packed a punch.

He wobbled and Steve took the advantage of it to pull Danny down on top of him, vodka sloshing between them.

"Danny," Steve started earnestly as Danny tried to arrange himself as he knelt over Steve, knees barely fitting onto the chair, one leg precariously balanced. "I accused you once of never being happy."

"Pretty sure I said I'm happy when I'm not with you."

Steve shook his head, "Point is. I just want to _make_ you happy. And I know I can do it, if you give me a chance."

"If I recall, you never believed me when I said that anyway. I remember, because that's when _you_ decided that I must love you."

Steve shrugged and his knee bounced, bringing his thigh up to rub against Danny's groin, making his breath hitch. "I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna make us happy. Even if I have to tear apart the island to do it." He raised his head for a kiss that Danny was about to respond to when he pulled back suddenly.

"Did you hear that?" He asked.

Steve scoffed and tried to bring Danny's attention back to him with a hand behind his neck but then they both heard a door closing inside and became conscious of the fact they were no longer alone in the house.

"Who the hell…?"

Danny got to his feet, still wobbly, but did his best to shake it off and carefully peer into the house. Steve raised himself up and clutched at Danny's sides as they moved through the open lanai door into the kitchen.

"Mom?" Steve asked as Doris appeared from the living room.

"Oh," she exclaimed, a hand to her chest. "I thought you boys would be upstairs by now. I just, I left my purse in here. Is it just the two of you?"

"Yeah, mom, the rest left not that long ago. We were sitting outside."

"I'm gonna…" Danny gestured that he was going to leave them both alone. He really needed to piss out what felt like a gallon of beer and whiskey anyway and now was as good a time as any.

"Congratulations," Doris said as he walked by her.

"Thanks," he waved off and walked out of the room with deliberate steps, loudly climbing the stairs and out of their way. After everything today, he didn't have the energy to face Doris, even drunk, as he probably was now. Considerably so.


	13. Eighth Installment

Danny took his time, letting Steve talk with his mother. After doing what he needed, he hunched over the sink and splashed cold water on his face. His vision was still swimming, his peripheral felt like it was shot to hell and if he turned his head too quickly he'd probably lose his balance.

He pressed a wet hand to his forehead and closed his eyes. He was stupid to have drunk so much again. But it was a celebration right? Yippee and all that. He was married. Again. He'd married Steve, they'd had the ceremony, he'd worn the marriage binds, there'd been cake, there'd been music and laughter and a bunch of their friends telling them how great it was.

He sighed as his hand dropped again. Steve said they'd talk in the morning. Morning was best anyway because right now he couldn't allow himself to do anything rash. Last night had been a bit of a lesson. Drunken Danny wasn't always the right person to let take charge of his life. Lesson learned.

He didn't know how long he'd been in there, but surely no more than five minutes and he'd yet to hear the door close again. He'd expected Doris to say some pleasantries, maybe a quick conversation with Steve and then grab her purse and go. She must still be there.

Danny crept out of the bathroom and hovered on the landing, an ear straining to hear downstairs into the kitchen. He could hear them talking, they were certainly both still there.

He moved halfway down the stairs and sat, a hand holding onto the banister.

"I just wanted to check that you were okay with it, is all. I didn't mean anything by it," Doris argued.

"You snooped around for the contract, mom."

"Please, it was in the top drawer of your desk. You may as well have framed it and put it on the wall," the CIA agent in Doris was clearly coming out to play tonight.

"I'm perfectly okay with it."

"And Danny?"

There was a pause. "We're going to check it over tomorrow. He's fine though, he will be."

"I fully support you, Steve, but I have to play devil's advocate at times. It was drawn up fast, I just want to make sure-"

"Fast doesn't mean wrong. Besides, I knew what I was doing." Steve interrupted her, trying to put an end to her arguments. Danny was tempted to run in and put an end to it, but if Doris' arguments worked in his favor, maybe he owed this to Steve to let someone else also point things out to him.

"Okay, then." Doris paused now, then her softened as she spoke next. "You know, your father and I argued over ours for a good two weeks. Non-stop. He ever talk to you about it?"

"No," Steve shifted to lean on the counter top, arms crossed. "But I've seen the papers. I'm surprised something so weak would take so long."

"If your father had his way it wouldn't have been. He wanted to put a lot more in, kept saying he'd agree to anything."

That made Steve stand up straighter and Danny followed suit from his sitting position. This was taking a turn, and now Danny was reconsidering interrupting this, but Steve had heard something he wanted to find out more about and nothing was going to stop him getting answers.

"What are you talking about?"

"He was like you," Doris held up what looked like copies of Danny and Steve's contract. "Willing to add in all his assets, whatever I wanted, whatever my family wanted."

"But he didn't. Not in the end, the contract was weak," Steve surmised.

"Anything can happen in life and for your father and I, it did."

Steve was tensing up as things dawned on him. Danny could practically feel the waves of anger from where he was sitting. "You made it easy for yourself to leave! To walk away from your family. Your husband, your kids?! Even then, you knew you would go back to the CIA without explanation."

"No, Steve, I didn't, how could I know that? I had history that could come back to haunt me, haunt all of us and when the Agency told me something was wrong, I had to go. And I had to be able to do it fast."

"You walked out and sent the divorce papers by courier. Already signed! I'm the one who opened the door to the guy holding that brown envelope. Dad was a mess and I'm the one who opened it up and saw what it said. _**I'm the one**_ who had to go up to my father and tell him you weren't coming back. Do you have any idea how that was for me? I was sixteen!"

Danny held his head in his hands as he listened in, now struck dumb by what he was hearing and there was no way he was intervening now. He knew Steve had marriage hang ups, but he hadn't known this.

"I'm sorry, Steven, but I had to."

"Dad never recovered, you know. He threw himself into his work, sent me and Mary-Ann away. Your pathetic contract is to blame for ruining his life."

Steve took steps to leave but was thwarted by Doris' outstretched arm grabbing onto his elbow. "You were all in danger if I stayed."

"I don't care. We were family. Family sticks together and sees things through. And it took me a long time to get that again and now I have it. Okay? And I don't care if you approve of my contract or not. I waited, mom. You think I never had offers before? I never accepted anything because I was holding out for something better."

"Danny and his daughter aren't just some ready-made family for you, Steve. You could have built your own not just latched onto your partner like a lifeline. What about Catherine?"

"Please," Steve snorted. "I love her in some ways, but there's no way we'd work out. We're too alike. In fact, she's too much like you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means she's too invested in her job. Danny, he… he lives for his family, for Grace. Everything he does is to make things safe for them, that's one of the reasons he became a cop and I'm going to make sure that he can keep doing that. I'm going to do for him what he does for everyone else, what he does for me."

"With a contract that basically says he can't leave you? Steve, no contract is foolproof."

"What?" Steve asked, like he was losing track of the conversation, of his own train of thought.

"He could win the lottery next week or come into a great inheritance and have plenty of cash to get a great lawyer who would settle this contract for him and he'd be out like a shot. Right now he might be stuck in it but things change, situations, laws… a month, a year, ten years from now he could still leave you."

"You act like it's a done deal, like everyone who marries is like you and goes into it making sure they can get out of it. Danny's not like that."

"Really? You told me already that you're going over this thing again in the morning. What does he want to do, huh? Want to bring it down a notch or two? What would that mean for the ease in which either of you can get out of it?"

"He's not… it's not about that…"

"Really? Maybe he's more like me than you think."

"He's not getting away from me." Steve shook off Doris' arm and stormed out of the kitchen and into the living room. Danny stood up from the middle stair he was on in surprise. He had been engrossed in his eavesdropping and now it was clear he was getting caught out.

Steve's eyes turned to the movement and focused on Danny. "You heard…?"

"Yeah," Danny nodded, nervously. He was stupid, so stupid; he should have stopped Doris when he had the chance. As he'd listened his heart had sunk. Originally making sense, and keeping things calm, he'd been fine with Steve having his moment with his mother but as it had become more agitated, he regretted that. Rooted to the spot, it was like he was rubbernecking a car crash and he couldn't bring himself to move despite the sinking feeling in his stomach as Doris wound Steve up tighter and tighter.

Whatever Steve read in Danny's body language wasn't good. He bounded up to meet Danny and pulled him into a tight embrace, burying his head in Danny's neck. It took a moment as Danny's hands flailed in mid-air, keeping them balanced.

One thing was for sure, Steve had been drinking straight vodka on top of his beer and there was no way that hadn't affected how he had felt during the time with his mother, who, it seems, had slipped out the back again and was taking the long way round to her car.

"Steve?" Danny tried, carefully tangling one hand in the back of his head, while the other soothed over his shoulder.

The sound of Danny's voice brought Steve's head up. His neck felt damp and he could see the wetness shining in Steve's hardening eyes. He brought a hand to Danny's face, the hold tighter than normal, fingers gripping into his neck.

He closed the gap again and kissed Danny hard, almost aggressively. "Tomorrow, we can add in more. I'm giving you more, Danny, I have to. I can't turn out like my dad, I can't." He lodged his head in Danny's neck again and breathed deeply, arms encircling him and pulling in tight like a limpet.

This wasn't square one, Danny gulped as he thought it. This was more like square minus ten. He had his work cut out for him.


	14. Ninth Installment

He wasn't exactly sure how it happened, but somehow they'd stumbled to the master bedroom and now Danny was kneeling on the bed next to Steve who had too many limbs moving around, all the while doing his best to get through to his drunken partner.

"Okay, listen to me. You are not your father. Or your mother. And neither am I."

"But the contracts-"

"Fuck that, Steven. Take a step back for me, okay?"

"I'm sitting down." Okay, drunk Steve was going to be like this then. And Danny was going to struggle as it was; the whiskey had done a number on him, too. He didn't remember Steve being quite so out of it last night.

"We really shouldn't have been drinking," he wiped a hand over his face, trying to get his eyes to see clearly again.

"But we were celebrating… until my mom…" Steve seemed to drift in and out of his thoughts, then snapped back enough to give Danny a level look. "Let's get back to celebrating."

With that he pretty much lunged at Danny, knocking him over in his haste to try and start opening buttons and slipping a hand down the waistband of Danny's pants like he couldn't decide which was more important to get to first.

Danny fumbled to push against Steve's bulk, his weight lying heavy on top of him, but he was able to brace in against Steve's shoulder blades and give an almighty push and Steve landed on the floor with a thump.

"God, _**no**_ , Steve, now is not the time," Danny said, scrambling onto hands and knees, ready to defend himself if needed. "Not when we're drunk, and you're upset and I'm pissed off as all hell."

"Tomorrow, Danny. We'll deal with it all tomorrow, can't we just have tonight? The day had been going so well," Steve moaned petulantly.

"Think back, please, over the events of the last 24 hours, and you tell me when things were going well from my point of view. Huh? When did I last seem okay with everything?"

"But…"

"No 'buts', Steve. The fact that you started your sentence like that means you damn well know I've not been. And you've been ignoring my concerns because you've been in your own lala happy-land."

Steve gingerly stood, with a slight tilt in his inebriated form, and carefully sat himself on the bed next to Danny.

"I just wanted everything to be perfect. And I just want to give you what I can."

"But you're not giving me what I _**want**_. And we can't both be happy if we don't work out how to get us to that point."

"When I got up this morning I felt so good. There's no better cure for a night of drinking than waking up and realizing that you got what you'd been fantasizing about." Steve closed his eyes. "I've been dreaming about what it would be like being married to you. Being able to touch you, help you, look out for you."

"You think you couldn't do all that without a marriage contract?"

Steve was quiet for a moment, his eyes unfocused again, looking all around himself while a hand blindly moved out to Danny's thigh. "I never wanted to start something that could end. I wanted to get you locked down, make the deal and know for sure that this was it. This was us, all in place and not going anywhere. I always said that would be how I'd do it."

"You think your father felt the same?" Danny looked up at Steve again slowly, gauging his reaction.

"He wanted to give my mother everything."

"And in the end he didn't. She didn't exactly explain what made him change his mind. If he had been _**that**_ passionate about it, why did he relent to a weaker deal?"

"Maybe he didn't love her as much as I love you."

Danny leaned his forehead on Steve's shoulder and felt the other man's arm go around his waist. "Or maybe he realized his demands were making her unhappy, and they couldn't have the future he wanted, if she wasn't on board with that."

"I don't want to lose you," Steve clenched his fingers into Danny's hip.

"Your mother was right about one thing, even if she put it really badly." Danny attempted to turn closer to Steve but it was difficult to maneuver himself around in the tight space between Steve's arms. "You could still lose me. And it doesn't have to be because I suddenly have the perfect counter-offer to be able to divorce you. But I could die on the job, or contract some kind of fatal disease, or I could decide one day that I've had enough and just run away. And do it properly. Or hell, you could leave me in the same way."

"You couldn't run. They'd catch you; they have like a 90% success rate in catching marriage dodgers."

"You're a Navy SEAL and I'm a decorated police officer. Pretty sure if either of us wanted to dodge out of our responsibilities here, we'd find a way to do it."

"You still wouldn't. You've got Grace to think about."

"Considering the penalty I'd incur from ditching you, plus the contractual obligations; I think adding on abducting my own child wouldn't make much of a dent. I'd grab her, get us some fake credentials and we'd be in Iowa before you woke up from the drugs I'd use to make sure you were down for the count."

"Iowa?" Steve looked at him with such a clueless face that Danny couldn't help but smile.

"Wherever, babe. Look, this morning I ran out on you because I thought I had done the most monumentally stupid thing in the history of stupid things. That I'd made myself into your kept man and pretty much lost my freedom to you and it felt so constricting that I had to get out of here. I looked at the contract and a lead weight dropped in my stomach because I felt trapped with no way out. Doomed to live a life by your rules and demands and needs… I felt like my world was changed for the worse."

"You felt? Does that mean you don't think like that anymore?"

"Strangely, I think your mother has actually made me realize that I'm not really trapped. I've just made things difficult." Huh. It seemed Danny wasn't so much thinking in his head anymore, rather he was doing it out loud and it wasn't so bad. Maybe he was coming to terms with some things again. Then again, he was also drunk right now, or sobering up a little… which means this is probably how he'd felt the night before without fully being aware of it. No wonder he'd signed, no wonder he'd been open to signing when he so _openly_ trusted Steve on a regular day. He hadn't felt trapped the night before, he'd felt naively confident.

That and he'd gained a hell of a trust fund for Grace, and he always put her first.

Steve interrupted his thoughts. "I just want to be married to you. I just want us to be partners in every sense possible and make sure that we can be that for the rest of our lives."

"I was raised to believe that we don't need contracts to make that happen. That we just need trust, and love, and the matching desire to make that happen. Look at my parents. They're still together with absolutely no intention of leaving. Not everyone is your mother."

"What's their deal like?"

"Basic. Even. When they got together there wasn't an expensive house in the mix. Just a car, handed down family heirlooms, potential earnings from their jobs and projections on how they'd pay for future assets. Which they decided would be fifty/fifty. The only sticking point was my dad's job. Being a firefighter meant having to put in death provisions. They didn't need too much more than the Government's basic requirements because they didn't feel the need. I think the only thing my mother really allowed was the concession of a negotiation ring to show she was off the market, so to speak."

"They made it easy on themselves if they needed to divorce," Steve pointed out.

"No, they took the pressure off. It's why they think they've had an easy marriage. They've not felt indebted to anyone, no weight on their shoulders."

"Why didn't you tell me all this last night?" Steve complained, now moving to face Danny better and reaching out to smooth his hands over Danny's chest, a hand catching in his half-open shirt.

"I don't know," Danny sighed, his hand joining Steve's. "I got carried away. We looked up the form on Google for fuck's sake, I didn't think we were really filing and I may firmly believe in my principles, but it doesn't mean I don't think about how good it might be to just give in to the old way of thinking. It seems the more drunk I am, the more I turn into a harlequin wench who just wants to fall into your arms."

"I'm the pirate with remarkably well-maintained looks for the age, who will happily catch you."

Danny leaned in and placed a chaste kiss on Steve's lips. He couldn't read Steve's mind, and the other man had been the quieter of the two during the conversation, but he felt he was repairing the damage Doris had done to him. Much like he'd calmed Steve's shark cage tendencies; he may have made a dent in his marriage issues. And okay, he'd also acknowledged that he may occasionally succumb to Steve's crazy, maybe by tying someone to the roof of his car, but in the end he came back to himself and could be the steady hand.

"I'm sorry, Danno," Steve's hand played into Danny's hair. "I told myself you were just keyed up in your usual pain-in-the-ass way, I didn't take you as seriously as I should have. Even after you punched me. Which, by the way, the vodka has really dulled."'

"I'd apologize, but you fucking deserved it."

"I was an asshole," Steve agreed.

" _ **Beyond**_ ," Danny spun out. "An asshole wrapped in a crazy fucktard with tunnel vision."

"Okay, I get it," Steve laughed. "Can we stop thinking for the night. Please? After everything I'm just… I'm just beat."

"Yeah," Danny agreed, the whole day had been one big jumble of jumping emotions. He'd spent so many hours locked in his own head thinking up worst case scenarios, imagining how these conversations would eventually go all while trying to gather information and put things in perspective. All these other people with their opinions never helped. It was worse than being on a case. "Yeah, I need to sleep, I'm exhausted."

Danny looked around himself, unsure how to proceed. He'd never slept in Steve's bed before beyond the occasional unthinking collapse while drunk, but they were married now. Should he stay here or go to another room? Or the couch? He liked the couch; he had no problem with it.

But Steve was like a bear combined with an octopus, and he'd manhandled them further up the bed so his legs were no longer hanging off and they were closer to the pillows. He'd wrapped around Danny, practically spooning into him, a hand clamped over his middle and stuck in place like he had suction cups on his skin. He was unmoving, despite the fact they still had their clothes on. Socks and shoes may have been discarded long ago out on the beach, but they still had their pants and shirts on, rumpled with loosened buttons, sure, but they were still wearing them.

Steve's head burrowed in at the back of Danny's neck and nuzzled lazily. "Can I keep the car?" he murmured.

"You're a nightmare," Danny mumbled, putting a hand under the pillow supporting his head.

"I like the car."


	15. Final Installment

It was still dark when Danny woke to the feel of hands trailing over his body, more buttons popping open and a wet tongue tracing patterns over his chest.

"Steve?" he asked, dazedly, still half asleep.

"Hmmph," was the best response he could get as he looked down to see the other man concentrating on what he was doing.

"What time is it?" Danny moved as much as he could, craning his neck to see the clock on the bedside table. "Steven, it's the middle of the night, what are you doing?"

Steve crawled back up Danny's body, his weight over him this time feeling comfortable rather than constricting, which Danny felt said a lot about how much they'd managed to get past in the last few hours. Steve kissed him, licking at his lips, turning his head just right to tease Danny in the best way possible. "I thought it was the best way to wake you up."

"What's going on?" Danny asked between a few more kisses.

"I've been thinking," Steve said, propping himself up on his elbows.

"I thought you were sleeping."

"Not so much. Too many thoughts, I couldn't sleep properly. Just been lying here holding you. You're cute when you sleep. And you talk too, like… little mumbles. I have no idea what that is."

"It's something you'll need to put up with now that we're married."

Steve kissed Danny again before pulling back to where he was before. "I can do that. Anyway, I had an idea and I think you should come with me."

With that, Steve sat upright and pushed himself from the bed. In a quick motion he was pulling on Danny to do the same, despite any protest about where the hell Steve got this energy from. Why wasn't he collapsed in a drunken stupor like the one Danny had been enjoying? His recovery time was far too quick to be human. Fucking sailors.

Danny trailed behind Steve as he was led down the stairs and into the study. Steve finally let go of Danny's hand and opened the top drawer. He looked confused for a minute when what he'd gone looking for wasn't there. "Oh, wait."

He left Danny standing there and ran back to the kitchen, returning with the retrieved documents that Doris had left on the counter earlier. Their wedding contract.

"I know this is just a copy," Steve began, holding them up for Danny to see, "but I figure I can still show you that I'm serious about working this out."

"What're you doing?"

"I'm making you a promise, okay? We can sort this out, we can take things out, change them around, get us to a point where we're both okay with everything. Look," Steve took a few more steps back towards Danny. "Our vows, earlier, they were the basic marriage text that everyone recites and I want to add something to those. Right now."

He approached Danny and scrunched up the papers in his hand as he took hold of Danny's. "Steve, it's the middle of the night."

"I know, I know, just. I want you to hear me out. I've wanted to get your signature on a marriage contract for a long time and I'm going to negotiate with you for as long as it takes us to get you comfortable but I can't let you go, okay? My life here… it's settled, it's good, I finally have the family I always wanted, the one I've searched for since my mom walked out on us, the one I tried to find with the Navy and it just wasn't complete until you walked into the garage. This is it for me, do you understand that?"

"Yeah, Steve, I get it," Danny nodded. There was residual worry floating around his head again at Steve's adamance, but he was willing to relax into things. He still had confidence in them to sort these things through.

"Okay," Steve gave Danny a quick peck on the lips before letting go and rounding the desk again. He pulled a lighter out of the second drawer and held the papers up high before lighting the bottom corner and watching the flame lick higher, their crisp whiteness slowly turning to ash.

It was a gesture; it wasn't really making any difference, like Steve had opened by saying. The files held in some government office were the official ones and in the eyes of the law, nothing had changed, but perhaps in the house, things were moving on.

As the flames reached higher, Steve dropped the last of the papers into a bowl and watched as the whole lot was engulfed.

"I want our relationship to be no different than it's ever been. Well, except the obvious." Steve came closer again, running his hand over Danny's arm. "I don't want to screw it up before it's even begun."

Danny crossed his arms and leaned on the table, eyes still catching sight of the flames as they slowly began to die down as they ran out of fuel. "You know, one of my sisters texted me earlier on. She had plans to tie your balls to a railroad track and officially boycott pineapple. It was a shame. She was the freak in the family who actually likes pineapple."

"Remind me to send her a gift basket from Dole."

"Hmm," Danny considered, eying the ash in the bowl and Steve's hopeful look. "I know this is all just a gesture, and I'll believe it when I see it, but you're doing good, babe. I'm proud of you. It's growth, I like that."

"I'll be honest; a part of me really doesn't want to change anything. I like what we came up with, but I'll concede that I didn't really give you enough time to digest it before making you sign."

"You're also not getting laid until I'm feeling better about it all."

"I could argue contractual obligations."

"You do that, and I fly my sister out."

"Point taken." Steve checked the flames were out and dumped part of a water bottle into the bowl to be safe, then abandoned his mess to come over to where Danny was leaning on the desk. He edged closer, spreading his legs for balance to avoid Danny's feet and let his hands track down Danny's open shirt until he got to the remaining buttons, pulling them apart until Danny's shirt was wide open. "So… we're good now?"

"We're better," Danny conceded.

"Can we start by compromising on a little making out?"

"Since when does taking my shirt off have to do with making out?"

"Just a little extra action."

Danny pulled Steve's hands away from where they were dancing over his chest. The allure was difficult to escape, but he was tired out and he needed to have his wits about him in the morning. "Not tonight."

Steve pouted, looking like a kicked puppy, but Danny refused to relent. He led them both back upstairs, all the while telling Steve just how tired he was and just how much he was not getting up early in the morning despite everything they had to do because he'd had a traumatic enough experience recently and wasn't ready to face anything until he'd had at least another eight hours of unconscious bliss.

* * *

Negotiations took weeks.

It didn't matter how unofficial it was at the time, people everywhere knew they were renegotiating their contract because they barely talked about anything else outside of casework. They refused to involve lawyers, citing them as a waste of money and they were perfectly able to do all this themselves. Hell, if _**anyone**_ tried to voice an opinion, they would turn and together shoot that person down for being an interfering busybody.

Steve took a strong stance on Grace's trust fund. He argued that since he'd already set up the first payment there was no point in stopping it. Also, he'd feel incredibly guilty if he took it off the table, thinking it made him look like he didn't care anymore when he loved her dearly.

As for the house, sure it had a hefty value but Steve felt that was useless unless they actually sold it anyway. The value was in the fact that it was a roof over their heads that would be there for years to come. He may own it, but it was inherited; he hadn't bought it with his own money so the value wasn't something he could truly visualize.

Danny took himself out of his offer immediately, that was the first and easiest decision he could make. Steve put up a token argument, saying he could put _himself_ in the deal too, because surely that would even things out but Danny was having none of it.

His car? Somehow along the way that stayed in. Maybe it was some unnecessary guilt complex Danny had from putting them through all of this. It wasn't his fault, he knew that. Not _just_ his fault. They'd both signed. He knew going in that Steve was a giant control freak with abandonment issues and a hero complex, so it should never have shocked him that he wanted the deal as is and in their crazy one night of discussions, had convinced Danny that it should be done his way.

But because Danny was the one to instigate the need for change, he felt like he had to make concessions of his own again. And it seemed the car was one of those. It lightened Steve's mood, and frankly, it showed that Danny did trust Steve with his life because if he was letting him drive everywhere, then that was commitment.

In the end, they came up with two different sets of documents only one of which would be refiled with city hall. The other was one they kept for themselves. It was their unofficial document, one with stupidly high expectations of each other that were motivated more by emotion than wealth and social expectations. They took it just as seriously as the government mandated form. It appealed to Steve's possessive nature, and to Danny's need for structure. To Steve's protectiveness and Danny's cynicism. It accounted for their codependency and it let them return to some form of normalcy.

Steve had backed off admirably but Danny could see in his eyes that he was struggling to maintain his outward cool as the deal was chipped away at. It was why he'd suggested the second one that was just for themselves. In this one, he'd made a lot of concessions of his own for Steve as it seemed fair. There were things that he wasn't entirely comfortable with but he was willing to try for Steve if it made him happy. He just kept telling himself that it wasn't wholly real, but the thing was, maybe it was more real than anything that a court system would hold over the heads. Because it was a promise made and he was nothing if not a man of honor.

So Steve did continue to have somewhat of a hold over him, if in spirit more than the eyes of the law. Danny was embracing it, he was relenting. He didn't have the fight left in him to dispute it anymore.


End file.
